New world
by Melanie Syntyche
Summary: Percy Jackson was pulled into the world of Hyrule. with his new friends, they have to face a new threat together. Set after HoO, before BOTW (when the Champions still live)
1. Chapter 1: The stranger

Chapter 1

Princess Zelda was a busy person. Between learning to channel and control her magic, praying to the Goddesses and keeping an eye on the Champions, she still somehow manage to squeeze in some free time to study the Guardians and conducted experiments of her own.

The princess knew she had to keep herself busy: Calamity Ganon was said to rise soon, and they were going to need all the help they could get. The only problem she was having right now was that her said-Goddess-blessed light power still hadn't shown up. All the mages and even Impa were doing everything they could to help her but ever since Zelda's mother was gone, things were just not the same anymore.

Biting down her sigh of frustration, Zelda closed the book she was trying, and failing, to concentrate on, and instead turned her green eyes on a stack of perfectly organized reports lying on a table nearby.

The reports were about energy surges popping up all over Hyrule. At first, it was just harmless little shockwaves randomly erupted at a single location. But soon after that, people had been seeing strange beasts wandering across the land, some even claimed these beasts could talk, but so far, there was no real prove supporting the claim.

King Roam, Zelda's father, had strictly appointed the task of supervising and analyzing these surges to Purah and Purah alone. But of course, Zelda had managed to convince the Sheikah scientist to sneak her some of the researches to study.

The latest energy surge was located near the Great Deku Tree in the Lost Wood. It was, by far, the most powerful surge, too. In fact, the place was still now ringing with overloaded energy. The overhyped white-hair scientist had reported that whatever was causing these surges was certainly powerful, but it didn't feel like Ganon. Powerful, but not necessary evil.

A firm knock on the door pulled the Hylian out of her thoughts.

"Uh, yes! Please come in!" she called out and the door slid open, revealing a familiar tall and slender Sheikah.

"Impa!" Zelda greeted, smiling. "I didn't know you'd be visiting today?" The Sheikah in question simply shook her head, her bright reddish brown eyes fixed on the Hylian with a faintest hint of disapproval. Immediate, Zelda knew she must have done something wrong.

"No, I'm not here to visit, I'm here to remind you about your… _appointment_ with Princess Mipha. Link and the horses are waiting for you. You're supposed to be on your way two minutes and a half ago."

Zelda's mouth formed an "oh". She had completely forgotten about her "appointment" with the Zora Princess. Though, if she was being honest, it was more of a visit than an actual appointment. The meeting was supposed to be an "exchange of information regarding the Divine Beast Vah Ruta", but all Zelda wanted was to get out of the castle and into the nature for a while.

"Right." Said Zelda, "I'll be right there."

Barely a minute later, she was nested comfortably on her Royal White Horse, Nayru, named after the Goddess who created the Triforce of Wisdom. Her father would have insisted her traveling in a carriage but she had always preferred racing down the dirt path at full speed like this, completed with the feeling of the wind blowing around her.

Link was right beside her, keeping pace on Epona, his straw color hair flew widely in the wind. His vibrant blue eyes caught her jade green ones and the boy offered her a small smile before urging his horse faster, letting out a small "hiya!" as he did so, until Epona ran pass her.

There was a time when the Princess and her Knight couldn't get along, mostly due to the Princess' attitude and stubbornness (Zelda would never admit it), but they were way pass that. Now, the two Hylians could be considered rather close friends.

The Princess felt a grin creeping to her lips as she urge Nayru forward and they were neck to neck with Link and Epona. Soon enough, the two was engaged in a heated race toward Zora's Domain and before she knew it, they had already arrived at Wetland Stable. They decided to register their horses there in favor of having them trotted on the rocky path. Zora's Domain wasn't far from here, and Zelda really wanted a walk.

Link swiftly slid off Epona and offered Zelda a hand, which she took with a playful eye roll.

"I'll secure the horses," Link offered, his voice as soft as a breeze, "I'll catch up with you later."

"Right, of course." Zelda smiled. Only a few weeks ago, they had had a small talk which she requested him not to follow her around wherever she went. It took a while, but she had finally managed to convince him. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy his company, but the princess had her own personal space, and she didn't like seeing Link went out of his way to perform his duty like that.

Zelda followed the worn path up the mountain toward the Domain. The weather was perfect for a swim: crystal blue sky with gentle breezes and occasionally a few puffs of cloud. Maybe they could go for a quick dip when she got there.

The princess quick reached the gorgeous crystalized bridge leading into the Domain. Two guards escorted her not into the Palace but toward Vah Ruta where, unsurprisingly, Mipha was hanging out with her brother, Sidon.

"Good morning Princess." The older Zora greeted kindly, her voice soft and her eyes gentle. "It's a pleasure seeing you again." Despite all Zelda's efforts to stop Mipha from calling her "princess", the Zora seemed to be too polite to do so.

"Good morning Mipha. It is great seeing you, too." The Hylian greeted back and offered the smaller Zora, who was looking at her curiously, a small smile. "Hello Sidon, I see you've gotten a bit taller."

Sidon gave her his signature toothy grin completed with the thumbs up at the praise, his sharp teeth somehow glinting adorably.

His sister smiled and knelt down to his eyes level, she patted his slightly oversized head and soothed: "Why don't you run along with your friends Sidon? I need to talk to Princess Zelda a bit, I will catch up once I'm done."

Beaming brightly, the smaller Zora gave his sister an enthusiastic nod before running off to join a small group of little Zoras near the Domain. A small moment of silence passed between the two Princesses as they watched Sidon made his way to his destination. They could hear the other kids delighted cries upon his arrival.

"Princess? May I ask if… Link is with you…?" Mipha asked timidly, her voice even smaller than before. Even though Zelda couldn't see her face clearly, she was certain the Zora was blushing.

"Yes." She answered without missing a beat, "He's securing the horses. I think he'll be here anytime soon."

"Oh" was the Zora's Princess simple responds. It was no secret that the female Zora was smitten with the Hylian Knight. Her crush on him had more than once been the subject of gossip between the Champions themselves, though no one could quite bring themselves to make fun of it. Link, however, was a different story. Whether the Hylian returned the sentiment or even aware of it was a mystery.

"How's Vah Ruta?" Zelda asked, not wanting to stretch out the uncomfortable silence. At the mention of her Divine Beast, Mipha brighten up instantly.

"She's doing wonderfully! The system was functioning smoother than ever before. It's like we were bonding."

"That's good to hear." Zelda nodded, eyeing the gigantic machine waddling in the lake. "There is no problem at all?"

"Not currently, no." Mipha confirmed, "If anything happens, I will inform you immediately."

That was good enough for the Hylian. The Princesses turned to look at Vah Ruta again, soaking in the magnificence of the Beast and the air of power and grace around it.

Suddenly, a bright flash erupted in the peaceful sky, a shockwave quickly followed causing the air around them to ripple violently.

Mipha stepped in front of Zelda, her trident in hand, her golden eyes scanned the area anxiously for Sidon. The little Zora prince was nowhere to be seen, which was either good or bad. Unlike the Zora Princess, Zelda was busy staring blankly at the sky, she could feel waves after waves of energy crashing through her. She could hear voices forming incomprehensible whispers all around her. Feeling light-headed, the blonde let out a strained yelp and staggered back, Mipha's shout of alarm seemed muffed and far away. Her vision blurred and darkened, and suddenly, she felt something heavy pressed against her lungs, making it hard to breath.

Then, as quickly as it started, everything went back to normal. Zelda stared blankly at the sky, looking as peaceful as if nothing had happened, it was very convincing, too. The Princess almost believed that it was all just some sort of stress hallucination if not for Mipha's bewildered look and Link rushing toward them, a band of Zora guards not far behind. The Knight halted a few feet away from them, his eyes full of worry.

"Your Highnesses!" One of the guards, a purple-skin female, bowed and quickly asked, concern evident in her voice, "Are you alright? What happened?"

"We are fine." Mipha answered firmly. Zelda could see Link and the guards visibly relaxed, "As for what happened, we were hoping to get some answers, too."

Zelda stared at the sky. Whatever had just happened didn't seem to last nor did it serve any lasting effects or damages. Everything seemed to be just fine, but the blonde couldn't quite shake the feeling that this was just the calm before the storm and something _big_ was about to happen.

Right on cue, a bright flash rippled the sky and something shot out of it. Immediately, Link jumped in front of Zelda, the Master Sword drawn in its full glory. The Zora guards had also drawn their spears and positioned themselves around Mipha, whose bright amber eyes were fixed sorely on the descending projectile.

Suddenly, those eyes widened and their owner let out a startled gasp: "It's-it's a _person_!"

" _What?"_ Zelda squinted her eyes at the horizon. This time, she could made out a Hylian-noid figure swallowed in golden light, hurling like a comet toward the blue lake below. Judging by the way they had their back facing the ground and their limbs flailing limply, the person was unconscious. With a sickening "BOOM", the person hit the water, sank like a rock and didn't resurface.

With a gasp, Mipha started sprinting toward the lake. She didn't make three steps before the female guard caught her arm:

"With all due respect Your Highness, what are you _doing_?" Mipha yanked her arm free and glared sternly at the guard:

"Whoever that was, they will die if I don't do anything. I'm helping them!" Zelda swallowed. Mipha was usually a sweet and easy-going person, but she could get quite feisty when she wanted to. The female guard, however, wasn't giving up just yet.

"What if they're dangerous?" she protested, her voice laced with worry. Clearly the female guard cared a great deal about Mipha. The red Zora's expression softened:

"Do not worry about me. Water is my domain, I can handle myself. What I need you to do is go look for my brother and bring him back to the palace immediately. Do you understand?"

By now, the purple Zora must have realized that there was no stopping her Princess. With a firm salute, she and the other guards took off. With no one in her way, Mipha resumed her dash toward the lake, this time with Zelda and Link close behind. With a graceful leap, the Zora's entire body disappeared under the crystal blue surface, barely making a splash.

The Hylian Princess and her Knight stopped short by the edge of the lake, waiting anxiously for their friend. Link didn't even bother putting away his sword, he simply let it hung loosely at his side as he stared intently at the water, his vibrant blue eyes seemed to be drilling holes at the spot where Mipha had hit the water.

To Zelda's relief, they didn't have to wait long. Barely a minute after she disappeared, Mipha broke the surface, staying afloat using one arm, the other supporting a clearly unconscious person.

"He's alive!" Mipha declared as they helped her out of the water. Zelda glanced at the person. _A male, huh?_

"He's not in any immediate danger nor does he have any visible wound, but I need to get him to the infirmary to make sure." The Zora informed.

Link nodded and wordlessly wrapped the stranger's arm around his shoulders, taking in all of his weight and stepped away from Mipha, who breathed out a small "thank you".

The odd group kept quite the entire way back to the palace, too occupied with their own thoughts to speak. The only noise between the silent was their footsteps and Link's quiet grunts whenever he had to haul himself and the extra weight up a slope.

When they finally managed to secure the stranger to an infirmary's bed, Mipha quickly did a quick check-over and claimed that he had no visible injury beside small cuts and bruises which she had already healed. The Zora Princess quickly excused herself to see her father, the King, and informed him of the new situation, leaving Zelda and Link with the unconscious stranger.

The person was obviously a male with healthy tan skin and messy black hair. Like Link, he was well-built but lean, not too bulky. The Princess had spent enough time studying Zora's anatomy to notice that this person was an excellent swimmer.

However, it was the stranger's clothing that caught her eyes the most. The shirt he was wearing was similar to a standard undershirt most Hylian used but she had never seen such vibrant orange on clothing before, the letters "CHB" written across the shirt didn't make any sense to Zelda either. His trousers were made out of a kind of fabric she had never seen before. Unlike most Hylian's trousers, which were mostly made from soft cotton or sometime leather, his were rough, stiff and had a dark blue in color. And how he managed to put on such complicated shoes with so many laces was beyond her.

Zelda's eyes briefly scanned over a beaded necklace sat across the stranger's neck to a strange mark on his forearm: a trident with a single line beneath it. She tried wiping the drawing away, the ink didn't budge.

"His ears." Zelda jumped at Link's voice. She immediately felt bad for completely forgotten that he was still here. Regaining her posture, the Princess asked, hoping her voice was leveled:

"What of his ears?"

"They're round." Replied Link. The Princess's eyes snapped back to the stranger's head. A strain of his black hair had fallen out of his face, revealing his ears and true enough, they were short and round.

"Well, this is certainly strange." Zelda mumbled, "Everything about him is strange: he fell out of the sky, somehow survived the impact with just a few scratches. I've never seen clothes like his before and he had round ears! None of this made any sense." She rubbed her face with her hands in defeat. There was no way of getting any answer while the stranger was still out cold, staring at him while he was sleeping definitely wouldn't bring anything to the light. With a dejected sigh, the Princess muttered:

"Guess we'll have to wait."


	2. Chapter 2: Day gone wrong

**Chapter 2: Day gone wrong**

 **I own nothing, all the characters here are either Nintendo's or Rick Riordan's**

Percy was getting sick of this.

All he had asked for was a peaceful afternoon with his girlfriend Annabeth at the beach but _nope!_ It seemed like the Fates had had other ideas.

The teen pulled his frustration out on his sword as he spun Riptide in a lethal arc, successfully in decapitating a couple of hellhounds. This was the third attack this week. After the Titans and the Giants Wars, you'd think they would finally leave the demigods alone but _noooooooooooo._

Just yesterday, the son of Poseidon was tagged by two empousas on his way to the grocery. And now, his date with Annabeth was cut short when five Hellhounds shot out of absolute nowhere and attempted to take a bite out of the Half-bloods.

Key words: _attempted._

Percy allowed himself a small smile as he watched Annabeth sliced the third one's throat with her gleaming Drakon bone sword and stabbed another one in the head with her dagger, which she wielded with her left hand, successfully dustifying them.

The last one quickly realized that it was out-numbered and, wisely, decided to make a run for it. However, Annabeth didn't give it a chance as she tackled it on to its back. A moment of slashing and growling later, all what was left of the black beast was a puddle of shadow, which quickly sank to the ground and the daughter of Athena stood up tall and victorious.

Flipping her honey blonde locks out of her face, she grumbled: "That's for ruining my date."

Gods, he loves her.

"Nice job." Percy grinned, giving his Wise Girl a thumps up. Annabeth smiled with pride as she concealed her dagger and her sword fashioned itself into an ivory bracelet, which she clasped around her wrist.

"Thanks." She didn't even sound tired. Her smile, however, did drop a bit as she gazed thoughtfully at the spot where the hellhound had disappeared from, "This is the third attack this week. Piper had told me that she had been spotting more monsters than usual around L.A, too. Last I heard from Camp, Jake told me that the amount of monsters lurking around the barrier had increased as well. It's like they're waiting for something to happen."

Percy's stomach sank. Suddenly, the blue donut he had just eaten didn't feel so appetizing anymore.

"Well," He swallowed, putting Riptide away, "I guess the date is canceled?"

The blonde rolled her eyes: "Complaining doesn't look good on you, Seaweed Brain. We had a good time." She gestured to the blue ocean waving at them, "Tell you what: let's take another dip before going back, and the date will be considered successful. Sounds good?"

Percy didn't need to be told twice. The teen took off and raced toward the sea, screaming: "Last one there has to give the others their cookies!"

Laughing, Annabeth sprinted after him: "In your dream, Seaweed Brain!" Sally Jackson made the best blue cookies the Half-blood had ever had the pleasure of eating. There was no way she was going to lose her share of those heavenly bake-goods.

The couple's laughter was muffed as they dove beneath the blue waves, not bothering to change into more swimming appropriate clothing.

"I believe I won that one." Percy proclaimed once they had collected themselves. "Annabeth stared at him in mock surprise:

"Really? I was under the impression that since you had a head start but I caught up nonetheless, that made _me_ the winner!"

 _Gods, she had beginning to pick up on his sasses._ Percy thought in amusement as he laughed and flicked his hand at her. Immediately, the blonde's head disappeared under a wave of salt water, drowning out her yell of surprise. The son of Poseidon quickly followed as she grabbed his ankle and dragged him down with her.

Smiling, Percy summoned an air bubble for both of them. Without missing a beat, the daughter of Athena swam closer and pulled him in for a kiss.

Percy's stomach exploded into fireworks as their lips connected. It was just like their first underwater kiss under the Camp's lake, perhaps even better. It had been so long since they last kissed like this, but between being put to sleep for eight months by Hera and fighting against their evil Mother Nature Great Grandma, they _just_ didn't have the time.

After what felt like an eternity of happy, sunny days, they pulled apart. Annabeth was grinning like crazy and Percy doubted if his face was any difference. He could never forget how beautiful the blonde looked, especially under water. Her rich honey blonde hair was swaying with the rhythm of the waves, the blue aquatic light of the sea only made her eyes brighter and livelier than ever.

"Are you still there, Seaweed Brain?" She teased and he stammered a bit, which only served to make her snickered louder, "Come on, let's go back before anyone started to worry."

"Worry? Since when have I ever let anyone worry about my well-being?" Percy's joke earned a murderous glare from his girlfriend, which successfully made him recoiled and grinned sheepishly. "Okay, okay. You go up ahead, I'll fine a seashell."

Annabeth rolled her eyes but didn't suppress her smile. It had become something of a tradition between the two of them. Every time they hung out at a beach, they always come back with something from the sea, mostly exotic seashells which Percy fished out of the ocean.

"Be back soon, Seaweed Brain." The daughter of Athena jokingly warned. With a final peck on his cheek, Annabeth broke out of their shared air bubble and returned to the surface. Percy watched until she was out of sight before smiling and headed deeper down and planted his feet onto the ocean's floor. Littering on the sandy ground was billions of sea species ranking from tiny sea snails to one of those gigantic starfishes.

" _Hello!"_ The son of Poseidon greeted a nearby sea turtle, who slowly bobbled his head in acknowledgement, _"Have you seen any special seashell around here? I, uh, need one for my girlfriend."_

The turtle took a moment to reply: _"Yes, my Lord, I believe I saw something the other day… a golden seashell… it was over there…"_ The turtle waved his fin vaguely to the left, _"It's only a few steps from here… you can't miss it…"_

Percy beamed. _A golden seashell? That sounded perfect._

" _Thanks a lot man!"_

The turtle bobbled his head again: _"My pleasure to help, my Lord… I hope your girlfriend enjoys …"_

" _She will."_ Percy promised before making his way toward the pointed direction. True to the turtle's words, the teen found the shell sitting on a rock, gleaming underneath one of the few rays of sunlight strong enough to reach the ocean floor.

The shell wasn't too big, it wasn't small either. And like the turtle said, it was gold in color and was spotted with turquoise spots forming wavy patterns all across the shell's smooth surface. It was so beautiful Percy almost thought the thing was from one of those home décor shops. But when he picked it up, he could tell that it was a real, legit seashell. The golden surface of the shell was warm, despite having sat there for gods know how long.

 _If this was yours, dad, thank you._

However, something about the shell began to unsettled him. It felt… _wrong_ , like it shouldn't be here in the first place. The demigod was suddenly aware that the ocean around him had gone silent. He couldn't hear the sound of the water and he couldn't even hear the sound of his own breathing. All he could hear was a small hum emerging from the shell. Percy realized the humming wasn't just random noises, they were forming a tune, a lullaby, though Percy didn't know how he knew that.

 _Screw it._ Percy thought as the shell started vibrating and dropped it. _I'm not getting murdered by a singing seashell._

Not a second too late, the Half-blood regretted ever thinking that.

The seashell hit the ground with a visible, vibrant "tink" that echoed through Percy's brain. Not a moment later, the shell exploded into hot, burning light.

"Oh crap." Percy cursed his own luck as he tried to get away, drawing in the strength of the ocean to aid him. But the light was acting like a vacuum and was sucking him in. slowly, he felt his strength leaving him as the light steadily becoming painfully bright. Percy's vision was going black and he was finding breathing very difficult. He was going to drown.

"Oh gods. _Annabeth!_ " His scream was stuck in his throat as the light swallowed him whole.

And Percy Jackson was gone.


	3. Chapter 3, Rude awakening

**Chapter 3: Rude awakening**

 **I do not own Percy Jackson or BOTW**

The suspense was going to kill her. Zelda's curiosity was burning her alive and if not for Mipha's insistence that the patient needed to rest, she would have badged in and proceeded to wake him up herself with not necessary gentle ways.

The Princess had sent a letter back to her castle saying that she would be spending the night at the night at Zora Domain. When the stranger woke up, she wanted to be if not the first to be there then the first to hear about it. It was ten o'clock at night but the blonde still couldn't sleep. She had so many questions and theories about the strange occurrence of the day that it was impossible to turn her brain off.

Finally, she gave up on trying to coax herself to sleep, knowing that it would be fruitless. Zelda instead chose to put on her robe and went for a walk. This was far from the first time she had ever done this. The Princess had had many sleepless nights since her mother passed away. Back at Hyrule Castle, it wasn't "proper" for a Princess to wander around at night. However, here at Zora Domain, the rules were not as stern. Even at night, the palace's blue corridors were never empty. Zelda found several elder Zoras and even a few young ones strolling across the crystalized floors, some stopped and talked to her, but none questioned her decision of a late night walk.

After a while, the Princess found herself alone on a bridge overlooking a small waterfall nearby. She spent the next of her time observing a handful of Zoras diving off the waterfall straight into the water below, just to swim back up to the top without breaking a sweat. Zelda had seen Mipha performed the act many times before, but it would never get old.

She lost track of how long she had been standing there, lost in her endless stream of thoughts until she heard hurried footsteps approaching her. Zelda was surprised to see Link running toward her, looking positively excited.

"Link? What is it?" She asked.

"He's waking up." That was all Link said, but that was all Zelda needed to hear to feel a burst of excitement roaring through her veins. Without a word, she took off toward the infirmary, Link keeping up behind her.

They made it inside in no time at all. Mipha, who had automatically shushed them the moment they set a foot inside the room. The red Zora has her right hand hovering above the unconscious stranger's forehead, her palm glowing faintly while the Zora's less dominant hand was placed firmly on her chest. Zelda had seen this type of magic before, this particular spell was often used by healers in order to wake someone up once their body had fully recovered.

The Hylian held her breath as Mipha finished the spell and the stranger began to stir. Then, without warning at all, his eyes snapped open, revealing the most beautiful shade of green Zelda had ever seen. Those eyes were bright and were the perfect combination of green and blue swirling together. Anyone would want to have eyes like those.

However, the Princess didn't have much time to admire the stranger's eyes as he sat upright so fast it made Zelda cringed. Not missing a beat, he jumped out of bed and onto his feet with impressive speed and steadiness for someone who had just woken up. Then, just as quickly, the stranger turned to face them, he pulled a sword out of absolute nowhere and held it in a defensive stance. All of that happened in a matter of seconds.

Almost instantly, the blonde Hylian was pushed behind Link, who had had his own sword and shield out and was holding them in front of her protectively.

For what seemed like forever, they stood there, frozen in one spot. Zelda could see the stranger's sea green eyes scanned briefly over the Master Sword, the Hylian Shield and Link, they lingered slightly on the Knight and the Princess' pointy ears. He raised his eyebrows at the sight of Mipha before gazing at the door and settled back to them again.

Link, however, was more focus on the young swordsman in front of him, or more specifically, his sword. The weapon was made of a brownish gold metal, copper perhaps. But Link had never seen the design of it before, and he had literally seen every kind of weapons in Hyrule before, from the most common Knight's Broardsword to a Yiga's Demon Carver.

The sword pointing at him was short and leaf-like, similar to a Rito's Feather Edge but hid blade wasn't as wide. Comparing to the Master Sword, the blade was almost… petite. This could be a disadvantage on Link's part, since foreign weapons usually meant unknown fighting style. And judging from the way the sword sat naturally in the stranger's hand, Link didn't need to be a seasoned fighter to know that he was lethal with it.

Finally, before the tension snapped, the stranger spoke: "Okay… I'm gonna assumed that I'm not dead and this isn't some kind of crazy after life or some sort of messed up dream." He took a deep breath, and his next sentences came out urgently and demanding: "So… who the heck are you? Where the heck am I and where is Annabeth?"

The swordsman's voice was raspy –probably from lack of water- and he had a foreign accent, but Zelda could make out the words just fine. She, however, didn't understand half of what he was saying. The Princess tried to collect her thoughts. She had participated in diplomatic matters with her father before, but this was rather new. Nevertheless, when in doubt, start with introductions, that would guarantee some trust from the other party.

"My name is Zelda," The blonde Hylian began, hoping that her voice wasn't that high pitched, "This is Link," The mentioned only tensed up more. _Not helping Link!_ "And Mipha." She didn't mention the fact that the two girls was loyalty, the stranger didn't need to know that just yet.

"You are in Zora Domain." Mipha provided with a polite smile, "Home of me, and my people."

The young man's eyebrows knitted together and he mumbled something about "fish people", and demanded: "Still didn't answer my last question: _Where's_ Annabeth?"

Zelda didn't miss the fact that his voice seemed to quaver a bit as he said the name out loud. She exchanged a look of confusion with Mipha, who decided to replay the event earlier: "I do not believe we know this 'Annabeth' you speak of… We saw you fall into the water from the sky and we brought you here. There was no one else with you."

The swordsman muttered something under his breath. The meaning of the word he said escaped her, but judging from his tone, the word wasn't exactly kids friendly.

"Could you tell us who you are, or at the very least your name? We could be able to help if we know more about you." The Princess dared to ask, the stranger snorted and challenged:

"Right. How 'bout you tell blondie overt there to put the sword of destiny away, then, I just _might_ tell you."

Zelda's mouth curved into a frown and then turned into a straight line. She wasn't exactly used to being challenged, probably had something to do with being the King's daughter and all. But the stranger didn't know that, and he didn't seem like the type to bow down to anyone either. His undying eyes were drilling a hole into Zelda's head, and she was starting to get slightly uncomfortable under the pressure. The Princess knew that sooner or later, they would have to reach to a compromise. And personally, Zelda would very much like to settle it right now before the two bombs in the room went off with their glowing swords.

Slowly, the blonde placed her hand on Link's forearm, signaling him to lower his weapons. The Knight gave her an incredulous look but he sheathed the Master Sword away nonetheless, even though he still kept his shield in place.

She looked back at the swordsman, who was frowning but he was still holding his sword out. A moment passed, Zelda could see the gears behind his unkempt black hair turning, trying to decide whether to trust them. The tension in the room was so intense she could felt it crawling on her back.

Finally, he lowered his sword and the Princess let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She watched, fascinated as the weapon seemed to fold into itself, turning into a small pen. The stranger stuffed it into his pocket before speaking up in a tired voice.

"Percy. I'm Percy Jackson."

/- (O) -/

Annabeth Chase was not happy. In fact, the daughter of Athena was next to livid. Though if asked whom she was angry at, the grey eyes one might have some trouble finding the right answer.

It had been hours since she had gotten out of the sea. It had been hours since she had been waiting for her boyfriend to come out with some kind of exotic seashell with that dumb grin on his face. It had been hours since she had last seen him.

The demigod might be overreacting, but she couldn't bear the thought of having to be separated from him ever again, not after Hera, not after _Tartarus…_

Annabeth shivered at the mere thought of the place. She closed her eyes and forced the memories out of her head.

"Annabeth?" The blonde was snapped out of her trance, she looked up to see her one of her half siblings standing awkwardly a few feet away from her.

"Yes Jake?" She asked, keeping her voice cleared of emotions.

The elder teen cleared his throat: "Chiron wanted to see you, and Grover's here."

Annabeth stiffened for a heartbeat. Grover had an empathy link with Percy. If anyone could know what happened to the son of Poseidon, it would be the satyr.

"Thanks. I'll be there." Annabeth informed her sibling as she exited the cabin.

It was summer, so Camp Half-blood was in full swing. Everywhere she looked, she could see Campers strolling around in groups, participating in different Camp's activities in content. She could even see the son of Hades, Nico di Angelo, with his boyfriend Will Solace, a son of Apollo, hanging around the archery range. Following Chiron's advice, they had kept Percy's disappearance a secret in order of not causing mass panic. And so far, it was working.

"Annabeth!" Grover exclaimed happily as she entered the Big House. Despite everything, the teen had to smile at the sight of the satyr, who had matured up so much since they had last met properly.

"Grover! Good to see you! You've gotten taller!" True enough, the once shorter-than-her satyr was now a good foot taller than her, including his pair of slightly curved white horns. Their reunion was cut short when Chiron rolled into the room in his wheelchair form.

"Annabeth." The centaur greeted her warmly and the daughter of Athena greeted back respectfully.

"I trust that you knew why we're here, correct?" The blonde gave him a solemn nod, her eyes stormy.

Chiron turned to the other occupation in the room: "Grover," The satyr sat up a little straighter at the mention of his name, "I believe that you have news regarding Percy, don't you?"

"Yes, I do." Grover's expression turned serious, " I can't connect to him through my empathy link."

 _What?_ Annabeth's head was buzzing with unanswered questions. For all that she knew, Grover's empathy link with Percy had never failed: not when Percy's memories were locked up thanks to a certain goddess, not even when he was pitched in _that place._

"How?" She asked.

Grover shook his head: "I-I don't know. I didn't know that was even possible. That's why I went to investigate. I-uh- I traced the empathy link back to the beach where he disappeared. There was this ocean nymph who told me there was a sea turtle that was near when –uh- something happened. The turtle said he saw Percy picked up a seashell and dropped it, he said the shell –erm- exploded into light… when the light faded, Percy was gone."

By the end of the satyr's story, Annabeth was gaping at him. Grover was starting to squirm uncomfortably under all the attention he was receiving. The daughter of Athena was sure her head was going to explode with questions. Swallowing thickly, she tried to keep her voice from breaking as she asked:

"And where, exactly, is that seashell now?"

Instead of answering, Grover simply reached into his jacket and pulled out something. There, nested safely in a thick scarf, was the most beautiful shell Annabeth had ever seen. It didn't take a genius to see why Percy had picked this one.

"The nymph told me that the sea creatures saw it appeared out of nowhere three days ago." Grover explained, carefully setting the seashell on the table like he was holding a ticking bomb. Given the events that had happened, Annabeth didn't rule out the possibility. The satyr continued: "None of them questioned it or paid it any mind; they thought it was Poseidon's or something. Apparently, things randomly popped up in the ocean a lot."

Chiron was inspecting the shell carefully, his hand hovering in inch above its polished golden surface but never quite touching it. A wise move.

"Curious indeed." Chiron muttered to no one in particular, "The shell contains ancient magic. It felt godly… but not familiar to the type I know."

"It's not Greek?" Annabeth's thought was going miles per hour, "It's not Roman either, is it? Egyptian? Nordic?" Chiron shook his head and the Half-blood's stomach sank.

"Great. More gods. Just what we needed." Thunder rumbled, Chiron gave her a warning look, the blonde ignored them both. She was too tired of all of this.

"I'll go to the library to see if there's any pantheon with a teleporting, exploding seashell." Annabeth volunteered dejectedly, "I'll tell you if I find anything."

Chiron nodded solemnly: "Good luck, Annabeth."


	4. Chapter 4: Adjustments

**Chapter 4: Adjustments**

 **Sorry for the short chapter, they'll be longer, I promise.**

 **P.S: I do not own any of these characters.**

Percy Jackson had had his fair share of weirdness, and this was far from the first time he had woken up at somewhere he didn't know, and he felt a small spark of pride that the situation didn't shake him as much as it could have. And the fish people were far from new on his list, though these were quite different from the mermen down under his father's palace.

After everyone had settled down, the two girls -the fish lady and the blonde elf- left him with blond elf no.2 to see the 'King'. Apparently, he had just crash-landed into someone's kingdom. _Typical._

Bathed in the moonlight, the place he was in was rather beautiful. The entire building was looked like it was consisted of floors after floors made out of ice and connected together by bridges. On each floor was at least a circular pool of water carved right into the ground and there were some bridges that looked suspiciously like water slides. Percy instantly fell in love with the place.

 _Annabeth's gonna love this._ Percy smiled silently at the thoughts of his girlfriend fangirling and nerding out about the structures and monuments. He had spent enough time with the blonde to realize that this place didn't look Greek, Egyptian or Nordic.

He ignored the stares he was receiving from the fish peoples in favor of trailing around the place, looking at everything with elf boy's eyes glued to his back, Percy ignored him, too. After a while, when it was clear that the blond was not going to utter a word, Percy decided to start a conversation. Might find out more about his whereabouts than just looking aimlessly around anyway.

"Sooo… Link, right?" 'Link' looked a bit taken aback, clearly not expecting the black haired teen to address him, but he nodded nonetheless.

"Not much of a talker, are you?" Percy noted, his voice neutral. Link glanced at him before nodding slightly, his golden bang falling into his eyes. The son of Poseidon snuck a small look at the swordsman in front of him. Though he looked pretty small, the guy was no amateur when it came to swords play, Percy had gathered that much when he saw the blond drew his huge, glowing sword. His face had that permanent look of Jason Grace whenever he was brooding, the blond hair and blue eyes only made it easier for the comparison.

"So, what _exactly_ is this place?" Percy asked, gesturing to their bluish environment.

"Zora Domain." The teen was honestly surprised when Link spoke; he was seriously beginning to think that the dude was mute. He wisely kept that thought for himself. "Zora" must be the term for the fish peoples here. He tried to remember if he had ever heard of anything about a race of humanoid fish living in an ice palace before; nothing came to his mind, which concerned him. After the encounter between Hazel, Frank and Leo with Chiron's fishy relatives, Percy had been spending more time on Greek's marine lives. Never once had the term "Zora" ever popped up. And they didn't even know him, every sea creatures knew him somehow.

His train of thoughts were cut short when a Zora, a guard, by the look of it, walked toward them and gave Link a shallow nod:

"Master Link," The Zora addressed.

"' _Master' huh?"_ Percy thought, glancing between the blond and the guard, _"Guess the guy's pretty famous here."_

The fish dude continued: "Your present, and the newcomer's…" He trailed off, sneaking a glance at Percy, who grinned and gave him a wave. "-are requested in the Throne room."

Link simply nodded back and gestured for Percy to follow him, which he obeyed, determined to get some answers.

/- (O)- /

Zelda shifted slightly on her feet as she watched Link and the newcomer, Percy Jackson, enter the Throne room. She snuck a glance at Mipha, who kept her bright amber eyes fixed in front of her with her head held high and relaxed; even though the slight fidgeting of her hands and the smallest shifting of her feet betrayed the Zora's nervousness.

The Princesses watched as Link stepped forward and kneeled respectfully in front of the King. However, Percy Jackson -or just 'Percy', as his request, was gaping at the gigantic King with his mouth slightly opened. And to be honest, Zelda couldn't quite blame him for reacting that way. The memory of her first meeting with the Zora King was still a little _too_ fresh for her liking.

"Rise, Link." King Dorephan spoke, his voice vibrating and echoing all across the chamber. Link rose and nudged Percy, snapping him out of his daze and urged him to move. The raven hair teen took a step forward, keeping steady eye contact with the Great King.

The Zora smiled warmly at him and greeted: "You must be the person my Daughter and Princess Zelda have told me about." Zelda saw Percy's eyes swept across her and Mipha, before returning to the King, who spoke: "I am King Dorephan, of the Zora. Tell me stranger, who are you?"

The Princesses stiffed a giggle as the "stranger" almost tripped over his own feet. She could him trying not to stammer when he answered the King's question.

"I-uh…" He cleared his throat. The teen obviously was not used to talking to loyalty. "I'm Percy Jackson, and I'm… not from around here?"

"I see…" The King hummed, a small glint of amusement mixed with curiosity crossed his face. Zelda swore: the awkwardness radiating from Percy was enough to suffocate her.

"Uh, quick question," Percy suddenly asked, "Have you ever, well, heard of anyone named… Poseidon?"

If a Zora had eyebrows, the Hylian was sure they would be raised by now.

"No." The King replied, "I do not believe I've heard of this… Poseidon."

The teen stared at him for what seemed like a good solid minute. And if the gigantic Zora felt any kind of discomfort under his stare, he didn't show it.

Finally, when it looked like Percy was not saying anything soon, the King cleared his throat: "I do not mean to be rude, but you seemed to be quite surprised by this information. May I ask why?"

The teen glanced sheepishly at the King, scratching the back of his neck, and when he found his voice, it was shaking slightly, agitated: "Sorry. It's just…" He took a deep breath, calming down, "Where I come from, Poseidon's a pretty big deal. If you haven't heard of him, I must be… far from home…" His voice became much smaller and more distracted in the end, aiming at no one in particular.

"My daughter," the King spoke, leaning slightly forward, "Said that you fell from the sky into our lake. Could you tell us what happened?"

Percy bit his lip, Zelda noticed his hand was tucked deeper into his pocket and his foot had taken on a more urgent tapping rhythm. Finally, he explained:

"I was at the beach with my girlfriend, Annabeth, I wanted to get her something, you know?" His eyes lightened a bit at the mention of Annabeth, "So I looked for a seashell. I found this gold one and I picked it up. Then, it got really weird… the shell started humming and when I dropped it, it exploded into light…" The teen furrowed his eyebrows like he was trying to remember the event. "Anyway, I'm here now, at a place with people I've never heard of or seen before."

"You've never seen a Zora before?" King Dorephan asked, surprise lacing his deep voice.

"Nope." Percy said, popping the 'p', the boy sounded extremely casual for someone who had just been thrown into this situation, "Not until thirty minutes ago." He pointed his chin at Mipha, who blushed a little.

"Hm, this is troubling indeed." The King thought out loud, rubbing his chin. "You claimed to hail from a land where Zoras are unheard of, and you claimed you were brought here by a seashell." The King's tone was flatter than Zelda expected it to be.

Percy seemed to realize how incredulous it sounded, because he quickly brought his hands up in a defensive manner:

"It didn't sound nearly as terrifying when you put it like that. But I swear, I know I sounded like a lunatic but I'm telling the truth. And I don't mean anyone any harm either, I just… I just wanna go home." The Princess had to give him credits: his voice did not waver, at all.

"I do not doubt your words," The King reassured, "You do not look like someone who would lie about something like this."

Zelda, having watched the exchange like a tennis match, decided to step in: "Uhm, Your Highness, if I may… Purah and I have been, erm, working on a project concerning energy surges all around Hyrule. We have a theory, well, there could be a chance that these events are linked together."

As soon as she finished, the blonde cringed internally. _Linked_ , really?

Thanks Hylia Link couldn't read minds.

The King, obvious to what was going on inside her head, looked thoughtful: "What are you suggesting, Princess?"

The Hylian swallowed, she could feel all pairs of eyes on her now: "I… would like to investigate further into this matter." She took a deep breath, doing her best to ignore the drilling stare Percy was giving her. "I think… If I my, I would like to bring our guest to Hyrule castle, it would be easier for me, and him, to deal with this situation there."

She turned to the black hair teen, who looked like he wanted to say something. She beat him to the punch: "Of course, if that is fine with you."

He merely responded with a shrug. King Dorephan was way more detailed than that: "If our guest do not have a problem, I do not see why I would." He paused, "Now, you all must be tired, it is rather late after all."

Now that he mentioned that, Zelda suddenly remembered how late it was. Immediately, he mind wandered back to the warm bed she was provided and the comfortable blanket the Zoras had given her.

The Great Zora continued: "I will find this young man here a horse, and I imagine you would like to leave at dawn?"

Zelda folded her hands together and executed the bow and curtsy which she had spent her entire life as a Princess learning and perfecting: "We thank you for your hospitality, Your Majesty, I sincerely hope that we were not a burden to you."

King Dorephan waved his finned hand dismissively: "It was no problem at all, Princess. Your father and I are best of friends, what kind of person would I be: turning down his friend's daughter's plea? Now, I believe it's passed your bedtime, go to bed. You have a long day ahead of you."


	5. Chapter 5: Should've seen this coming

**Chapter 5: Should've seen this coming**

 **I do not own anything.**

Percy was not happy when he was dragged out of bed the next day. It had been so long since he had last had a dreamless sleep, only to be interrupted three seconds after his head hit the pillow. When the giant fish King said they would be leaving at dawn, he didn't thought he meant it literally.

Now there he was, sluggishly trying to put on his trousers for a solid fifteen minutes straight before realizing that he was trying to put his leg through his shirt.

 _Thank the gods Leo wasn't here, he would never let me live this down._ Percy grumbled before correcting his missteps. The thought of his friends gave him an unsavory queasy feeling in his stomach. The demigod took a deep breath. His friends, the Seven, his mom, his family, they weren't here, they were all safe back at home and he didn't need to be worried about them. His friends were all trained in fighting, they could take care of themselves.

After a few more minutes of struggling and stumbling around, he finally managed to put all of his clothing on the right places. The Zoras had provided him a fresh set of clothing and Percy was thankful for the thought. Even though they had given him something that looked like it was pulled right out of Robin Hood: beige tunic, brown leather sleeveless jacket, leather belt, tan trousers and a pair of leather brown boots. The Half-blood looked strange in these, but he wasn't complaining. The set of clothe was a lot more comfortable and cooler-looking than those bed sheet of a toga he had to wear during his brief stay at Camp Jupiter.

Percy had insisted on keeping his old clothes. He had kept the symbolic orange T-shirt when he was stuck with the Romans with his memory locked away thanks to a certain Queen of Heaven, he was not going to give it up now. And the beaded necklace? The son Poseidon never took those off, not even when he was showering. The fish people had given him weird looks at this request, but they gave him a bag to store his clothing away nonetheless.

Now, the teen was standing in front of the sink in the bathroom, frowning at his reflection.

 _Dam, I looked like schist._

He snickered slightly at the old joke. Gods, he was losing it.

Percy turned his attention to the bathroom he was standing in. See, the Zoras don't have bathroom, Percy didn't know, and he most definitely didn't _want_ to know, how the fish peoples took care of their hygiene but they didn't have the common thing called "bathroom". This specific room was built only for foreigners. Which meant it was a public bathroom.

Percy supposed for a public bathroom, this wasn't half bad. He had had way worse at least. The place had the same bluish crystal-ly hue to it just like the rest of the place. Percy glanced at the rays of sunlight peeking through the highly placed windows. An idea popped into his head.

 _It could work. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try._

Percy glanced at the door. The Zoras don't use bathrooms, and as far as he concerned, he and the other two elfish blonds were the only foreigners here. Quickly, he dug his jeans out of his bag and turned the pockets inside out.

 _There._ The demigod whooped silently as he fished the golden drachma out of the bag. Creating a rainbow was no problem, since he was particularly in a place surrounded by water and humid atmosphere. Soon enough, there was a small rainbow shimmering on the wet floor.

Percy held his breath and cupped the drachma with both hands.

 _Moment of truth!_

"O Iris, goddess of rainbow, please except my offering." He whispered pleadingly, gripping the coin tighter. "Show me Chiron, Half-blood Hill."

He tossed the coin into the mist, it went right through, clanging dully against the floor.

Percy frowned and tried again, nothing happened.

 _Of course._ He breathed, pushing down his disappointment and bitterness. _Should've seen this coming._

He dejectedly picked up the drachma, put his stuffs back into his bag and walked out of the suddenly suffocating bathroom as quickly as possible.

When he finally reached the outside of the Domain, the two blondies had already stood there, waiting for him and looking like waking up at 3pm for a walk was perfectly normal for them, which he suspected it was.

The Princess, Zelda if he remembered correctly, was examining a foreign device that resembled a tablet with mild interest. She was wearing a rather complicated looking blue suit with black leggings and brown boots. Admittedly, the outfit made her looked a lot more royally than the robe she wore last night.

Link was in his yesterday blue tunic, his huge sword was sheathed in a purple and gold scabbard scraped behind his back. In the sunlight, Percy finally had a good look at the guy and he was surprised at how… _feminine_ the gut looked.

There was nothing wrong with that, of course. The guy was slim and was a foot shorter than Percy and the demigod could actually noticed how long his eyes lashes were. It really didn't help that his dirty blond hair was pulled into a half tail and his long ears were pierced with blue loops which matched his eyes.

Gods, he had spent way too much time with Piper.

Glancing at Link again, he was extremely thankful that he had known the guy before. if this was their first meeting, Percy might have miss-gendered the guy, and he would spent the next three days feeling like a total douche bag because of it.

When he was a dozen feet away from them, Zelda finally took noticed of him; the Princess gave him a small wave and a smile in acknowledgement, which he waved back in respond while trying in vain to stiff his yawn.

"Hello." The blonde greeted politely, "It's good you joined us. I see you are not used to getting up early?" Her accent was strange and her voice held no judgment, just simple curiosity, Percy decided he liked her.

"Yeah, I can't say I am." The Half-blood responded with a sheepish grin, "What's with you guys and traveling at the crack of dawn anyway

Zelda seemed a little surprised by Percy's question, but the Princess answered anyway: "I'm not sure how it started, but it's considered good luck to travel at dawn, you know… _'Let the light guide you'_ and all… Shall we get going?"

That was good enough for Percy. As the trio proceeded down the worn path, the black hair teen took his time to soak in the scenery. The demigod was no geography wizard, but as they moved on, he quickly realized this wasn't like anything he had ever seen.

Zelda had informed him that they were going to a stable to get him a horse. Percy was looking forward to this. If he could talk to a horse, he might have some more information about his whereabouts and how to get home.

But the further they went, his hope of getting home easy was running low.

There was no human around the area.

Percy spotted two women whose skin was extremely tanned and they both had bright red hair. Both were at least a foot taller than him, they had angular faces with sharp eyes and blue lips. Both women had long pointy ears not unlike Link and Zelda's. Noticing his questioning gaze, the Princess explained:

"Those are the Gerudos, a race of all-female dessert-dealer with a rare exception of a male born every hundred years. Their current chief's Lady Urbosa."

"I see…" Percy grinned slightly, "Lemme guess, they hated men."

The blonde eyed him: "'Hate' is a strong word. It's true they don't allow men into their town, but I wouldn't say they _hate_ them."

"You know, back where I came from, there's this group of girls who sworn off boys forever in favor of running around in the wild and shooting things called the Hunters of Artemis. There's also this group of ninja-warrior girls who I think are secretly trying to take over the world. They're called the Amazons."

Percy almost laughed at the expressions Link and Zelda were giving him. The later breathed a small uncertain _"oookaaay?"_ before brushing it off. Although he could tell the Princess was burning with questions by the way she was side eyeing him every three seconds.

"That's a Goron." She cleared her throat, gesturing to a boulder-like creature with yellowish skin with extremely buff upper body but small and short legs that made him (that's _definitely_ a 'him') looked a little off balance. His back was covered in rocks and they had small, round tinkling blues eyes and a huge smile plastered on his face. The "Goron" waved at them as he passed by, at which Link waved back enthusiastically while Zelda gave a polite nod and smile.

The Princess continued: "Gorons are very strong, they are mostly miners working on Death Mountain thanks to their extreme heat-resistant skin. Don't let their size intimidate you though, Gorons are very friendly."

"Huh, kinda like my brother." Percy commended off-handedly.

"Your brother?" Zelda asked, her curiosity once again peaked.

"Half-brother actually." Percy shrugged, grinning distantly, "He's big, strong, and as friendly as a puppy."

"Oh. He sounds delightful." Said Zelda.

"Yeah, he is…" Percy trailed off, his green eyes wandering aimlessly across the landscape before settling sorely on the Princess.

"Are there anyone else like me here?"

Zelda stopped dead on her track, prompting Link and Percy to stop as well, the former looked slightly alarmed. Percy tried his best to ignore the way the blond's hand inched toward his massive sword. The Princess turned to face the green-eye swordsman, a confused and alarmed look spread across her face, but Percy saw no surprise or shock; it was almost like she was excepting the question.

"What do you mean, 'like you'?"

Percy threw his arms up, and then gestured to himself in an exaggerated manner: "Uh, I dunno, is there anyone here who is two-legged, two-armed, round-eared; you know: _human_?"

The three of them lapsed into silence. Percy was suddenly aware of his raised voice and heavy breathing. He had to calm down.

Finally, Zelda collected herself from his outburst and testily asked:

"Human? Is… is that what you are?"

Okay, his world had officially turned up-side-down. Percy knew that at this point, a normal person's reaction would be freaking out, but all he felt was tiredness. He was way too sick of this sort of shenanigans. The son of Poseidon groaned and rubbed his palms over his face and his hair, ruffling them up even more than usual.

"Percy?" Zelda quipped, her voice tensed in an attempt to hide the waver in it, "Are you alright?"

Percy stared at her, the demigod felt like screaming and yelling at the ridiculous question.

 _Oh no! I am_ perfectly _fine! It's not like I've just been sucked into another_ f*cking _world by a_ f*cking _seashell! Oh wait! That's_ exactly _what happened!_

But he suppressed it. This girl had been nothing but kind and patient toward him. She had offered to help him get to the bottom of his problem, and shouting at her might not be the proper way of saying "thank you".

 _This could've been worse_. He thought. _He could've woken up in the middle of a dragon lair or something. These two could've left him or tried to kill him._

Percy forced his anger down and when he spoke, he was quite proud to find his voice came out casually as if his outburst had never happened: "Yeah… yeah I'm fine."

Link and Zelda was glancing at him then at each other. He didn't need to be Annabeth to know what they were thinking about, and he seriously wished they would stop. Before either Link or Zelda had a chance to say anything, Percy smiled:

"Let just go, alright? I don't want to talk about it now."

"…Alright." Zelda agreed, although something in her eyes told Percy that she was far from letting go of his outburst. He would have to deal with that later. As the Princess went ahead, Percy caught Link giving him a subtle sympathetic look. The blond wordlessly gave him a pat on the back, urging him forward.

The rest of the trip was spent in relatively silence, with Zelda leading the way, Percy following and Link trailing behind to keep an eye on both of them like he feared either Percy or Zelda would crack first and assault the other with deadly weapons or overwhelming question.

Once they arrived at the stable, the demigod dashed to the nearest horse and spoke to it in urgent whispers:

"Hey!"

It neighed in surprised: _"You can… speak Horse?"_

" _Uh yeah, it's something I can do. Hey listen, have you ever heard of someone called Poseidon?"_

The horse shook his head, still a little confused: _"No, I don't believe there's anyone here named that."_

Desperate, Percy tried again: _"How 'bout Zeus? Hades? Hera?"_

Another "no". The horse glanced at the teen, his tail twitching: _"Are you alright there, pal?"_

Percy tried to keep his voice leveled as he told the horse he was fine, his worst suspicion confirmed.

The disturbing part?

He wasn't even _that_ surprised.

Man, his life was _f*cked_ up.

"Percy." The Half-blood nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice right behind him. He turned to face his addresser and his green eyes settled on a familiar blond with blue eyes.

If Link noticed how jumpy and relentless Percy was, he didn't say anything:

"You're horse's ready."

He led Percy to the front of the stable, where thee horses were standing there, waiting for them. Zelda had already settled on a snow white horse in fancy purple horse gear. Seeing that Link quickly approached and pat the brown horse on the nose fondly, he guessed that the horse next to them was for him.

She was a beautiful mare and was obviously on top of her strength. She had a beautiful coat of rich creamy fur and a thick silver mane. The horse held herself proudly not unlike Arion back home. As he got closer, she neighed loudly and buckled.

"Woah! Easy now!" Percy soothed. He was no stranger to dignified horse like this, _"I'll get you an apple later if you let me up."_

Then horse stopped, tilting her head in suspicion: _"You can speak Horse?"_ and more eagerly: _"Apple?"_

" _Yes and yes."_ Percy confirmed and she went completely stilled and tamed.

" _I'm Percy. You?"_ He asked as he hauled himself up the horse like he did it every day, which he did. The teen didn't catch the impressed and confused look that crossed Link's face.

" _Silk."_ The horse replied proudly.

" _Nice name."_

" _I know."_

"Percy?" He turned to Zelda, who was staring him like she had just seen him for the first time. "Are you… are you speaking to the horse?"

"…Yeah, it's just something I can do."

A look of fascination crossed her face: "… I see. Is there anything else you can do?"

It was Percy's turn to stare at the Princess. She was a good person, he could tell. She had that look in her eyes that Percy had saw on Annabeth way too many time. The girl had a certain thirst for knowledge and if she was anything like Annabeth, he knew he wouldn't be able to keep his secrets for long.

On the other hand, Percy could clearly see that Zelda and Link were still trying to decide whether they should trust him. _He_ would too if some teenager shot out of the sky into the lake in his back yard. And he needed to convince them he meant no harm. Trust required a lot. Why not start with some information?

"I can do a lot. I'll show you later, I promise." He decided. Zelda looked like she wanted to argue more but thought better of it.

Mouth pressing into a thin line, she begrudgingly accepted: "Alright. We'll talk more about this at the Castle. Let's go."

The trio resumed their old formation was they ride down the road: Zelda in the lead, Percy following behind and Link in the back. At first, the Princess let her horse went in a steady pace, but once she saw Percy had no trouble keeping up, the blonde urged the white horse into a full gallop and Percy felt a burst of adrenaline in his vein as he sped up.

Riding a regular horse was nothing compared to soaring in the sky with a pegasi, but it was more than enough. Percy whooped loudly as he and the three of them raced down the path, the wind whipping around them. As they sped forward, they passed several other travelers, all of whom had pointy ears like Link and Zelda. The teen was seriously glad that the Zoras had given him something else to wear, his orange T-shirt would have drawn too much attention.

Once they took a sharp turn around a corner, Percy finally had a very clear view of what he assumed to be their destination: A huge, looming castle in the horizon. He couldn't see much of the castle itself, only its towering silhouette. But once he saw it, he had no trouble believing he was in another world entirely. He had seen the Mist done some rather impressive feats, but hiding an entire continent plus several races of its population who had never heard of the term "human" seemed pretty impossible.

"That's Hyrule Castle?" He yelled over the wind, just to make sure.

"Yes, that's Hyrule Castle!" Zelda yelled back, her voice shrilled, laughing.

Then things went horribly wrong.

The Princess' white horse buckled wildly, tossing her backward. Zelda let out a panicked yelp as she griped the rein tighter. It didn't matter, because the horse collapsed with a heavy thud, Percy stared in disbelief at the arrow sprout from its thigh.

He pulled Silk into a halt, slid off her and uncapped Riptide, his body and mind went on full alert as he scanned the area. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Link jumped right off his horse without stopping properly and drew his sword and shield, inching closer toward Zelda, who was nursing her horse.

The road they were in was big and on its either side were bushes and trees. Too many places to hide, their attacker could have come from anywhere.

Inching closer to Link and Zelda with Riptide drawn, Percy whispered: "What the hell was that?"

The look on Link's face was harder than iron, his voice was equally cold: "Yiga."

Percy blinked: "What?"

"The Yiga clan," Zelda whispered, her voice shaking a bit, "They're originally from an ancient tribe called the Sheikah –"

"–Yeah, yeah, later." Percy cut her off, green eyes darting around, "How do we beat them?"

It was Link who answered this time: "They're sneaky, and fast. Most off the time, they attack on their own, but this, this is an ambush."

True enough, Percy could make out several masked figures among the trees. He counted about three archers, a couple more of guys with cursive blades which he realized at sickles and who knew how many more.

Before he could figure anything out, the archers let their arrows loose, two at once. Percy swung his sword instinctively, and Riptide flew in an arc, cutting two arrows and half in midair. Link shielded himself and Zelda from the rest of the projectiles, the arrows broke in splinters the moment they connected with the shield's blue surface.

The sickle-wielding guys dashed forward and true to Link's words, they were fast. The red-cladded figures promptly ignored the blonds and went straight for the Half-blood. Percy brought his sword up and the blades clashed together with in a rain of sparks. The Yigas pressed forward, but the demigod stood his ground, until he was forced to quickly leap to his right, two arrows buried themselves where his foot was a second ago. He glanced at the sickle-wielding and masked figures, the demigod knew he could take them out, just not with a bunch of arrows aimed for his head.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Percy could see Link crouching low with his shield raised and sword drawn, and Zelda behind him, trying to stop the horse' bleeding. The blond was a ball of pent up energy, ready to spring up into action himself, but he couldn't do that without putting the Princess in harm's way.

Inching slowly toward Link while still fending off blurs of stabs and slashes, Percy grunted: "How fast can you take these guys?"

"Fast enough." Link replied roughly, glancing murderously at a sickle-wielder and thrust his sword forward, narrowly missing Percy and glazed off the offender's blade.

"Okay, that's cool." The teen swallowed while batting an arrow away and blocking an attempt of cutting off his arm. "I'll go after the archers; you keep these guys off my back, sounds good?"

Not waiting for an answer, he dashed into the trees and pounded on the nearest target. Archer No.1 went down in a blink of an eye. He rounded on Archer No.2 and Archer No.3, who fired four arrows at him, and the demigod thanks his ADHD reflexes as he dodges and weaved between the volleys of projectiles. He reached Archer No.2 and sliced his bow and half before kicking him in the chest, sending him stumbling backward hard. Archer No.3 made the mistake of stopping and trying to execute some kind of magic. Before the act was completed, Percy slammed the hilt of his sword against the center of the white mask and the Yiga went sprawling.

Turning back to the others archers, he cursed under his breath when he saw that they were gone, and the third one was also gone while he wasn't looking. When he arrived back at the road, Link had finished his job. The Yigas were nowhere in sight, but their weapons, two vicious looking sickles, were lying uselessly on the ground.

"Well," Percy mused, recapping Riptide. "That was fun."

Link shot him a look before hurrying toward Zelda, who was in the middle of bandaging up her horse. Silk and Epona had run off, but Link easily called them back with a clear, shrill whistle.

"She's stable at the moment," The Princess said breathlessly, "but she'll need medical attention." She glanced around nervously, as if searching for any more attackers. Turning to Link, her expression hardened:

"Link, we're on the edge of Hyrule Town, get Epona, and get help." Her tone was urgent and desperate, and Percy suddenly thought about one of those Disney Princess movies he'd watched a while ago. The blond swordsman didn't immediately go though. He didn't even bother to hide his sideway glance at Percy, and Zelda caught on.

"It's okay," She sounded like she was trying to convince herself, "We'll be fine." Percy didn't miss the glance she was sending him either, and while her concern was understandable, he was still uncomfortable.

After sending Percy one last _'if you try anything funny, I'll kill you slowly'_ look, Link jumped on Epona and galloped down the road.

"Wow," Percy grumbled, "that guy got to learn to chill."

Zelda smiled in sympathy: "Link has a lot on his shoulders. He can be a bit… intense sometimes."

"…What was those guys' deal, anyway? You said they're from a tribe called Sea-kar?"

"It's Sheikah." The Princess corrected, "They're an ancient race who sworn to protect the Royal family of Hyrule. They helped developed technologies for Hyrule. However, years ago, a lot of people felt threatened by them. So after a while, they, well, _retired_ willingly and peacefully in Kakariko Village. But some of them felt that the treatment was unfair, so they rebelled, separated themselves and formed the Yiga clan."

"Huh, I might have felt sorry for them if they weren't just tried to kill us."

"Right, and they tried to help resurrect Gan –" She abruptly stopped, and tried to covered her mistake by a series of fake coughs. Percy simply raised an eyebrow at her; and he thought _he_ was the bad liar. However, the son of Poseidon decided not to pry; after all, he, too, had secrets he wished to keep.

"…I can't believe they had the nerve to attack us when we're so close to town. It's like they're getting reckless, or _desperate_."

"Well, you tell me." Percy shrugged, "I'm not from here, remember?"

" _Riiiight._ " The demigod grinned a bit; he could totally imagine the blonde rolling her eyes obnoxiously. Zelda grumbled and made an expression which Percy guessed was supposed to be a scowl, but it looked like the Princess was pouting more than anything.

"I'm serious, Percy." It was incredibly hard to take her seriously, but he tried nonetheless. "You don't think that it was suspicious? The Yiga especially targets members of the Royal Family such as Link and I, but that attack was focused on _you_ , it was like they knew you were coming."

Percy thought her words over. He knew she was right: those Yigas had especially targeted him, not Link or Zelda. They had been waiting for his arrival. The thought sent an unpleasant chill up his back, he hated being in the dark like this.

Before the conversation could proceed any further, however, Link returned with a carriage right behind. The driver, a middle age man with tanned skin, warm brown eyes and salt pepper hair got off his stead and gave Zelda a bow, then he turned his eyes on the injured horse.

"Sweet Hylia! What happened to her?"

"We were attacked, didn't Link tell you what happened?" Zelda asked, hurrying to the horse' side.

"Nah, blondie there just pulled me out of my work, grunting 'bout someone needed help before pullin' me away."

The girl let out an un-royally snort: "That sounds like Link."

The man examined the wound with a low hiss of sympathy: "That looks nasty miss." He turned to Link and Percy, "Hey boys! Come 'ere and give me a hand would you?"

A few minutes later, with much grunting and swearing from both peoples and the horse alike, they finally managed to get the white stead safely and comfortably into the carriage, with enough space for Zelda to sit in among her horse. Before the blonde get on, however, she mouthed at Percy:

"We'll continue this conversation later." He merely gave her a thumps up.

"Sure, whatever you want, Princess."

 **A/N: All the pairings in here are all according to canon. However, you can read this as Zelda x Link or Zelda x Percy or anything you want, there's no limit to your imagination.**


	6. Chapter 6: Twenty Questions game

**Chapter 6: Twenty Questions game (short off)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.**

Percy felt a huge sense of déjà vu as he followed Zelda and a tall, slender woman through the castle's many identical corridors. He recalled his first time at Camp Half-blood and at Camp Jupiter, and his many other time ending up at some place new, he had known the "introduction routine" by heart now.

In fact, less than thirty minutes ago, he had had the displeasure of going through that routine again, combo scary woman warrior and everything. Said scary woman warrior had been waiting for them the moment their party entered the castle ground. She balked several orders to Link, dismissed the carriage driver and herded Zelda and Percy inside.

According to Zelda, the woman was Impa, a highly respected Sheikah warrior and advisor. She also acted as the blonde's personal body guard whenever Link was not there.

Predictably, she led the teens to the Throne room to meet with the King, aka Zelda's dad. The demigod was relief to find out that the King, who was introduced as King Roam, was somewhat briefed about the situation, and he was quick to dismiss Percy in favor of continuing the discussion with Zelda.

Now, he was once again following the Sheikah warrior through the many halls of the castle. He had met a lot of scary women in his life, heck, he was dating one, and Impa definitely fell under the top ten. With a stern expression, no-nonsense attitude, sharp eyes combo with the creepy face paint, the woman held way too many similarities with the she-wolf Lupa for Percy's liking.

She led him to a room, told him to stay in there until further notices and got out of his line of sight before he could open his mouth. The teen instead locked eyes with a nearby patrolling guard, who gave him a sympathetic look saying _yeah, she does that all the time, you'll get used to it eventually_ before strutting away.

If everyone here was like this, he would have no trouble making friends.

The room given to him was one of those standard old school-ly royal bedrooms with a big curtained bed, a wardrobe, a make-up desk completed with a cursively framed mirror, and a huge balcony. Percy immediately held instant respect for whoever designed this place as soon as he opened the door to the bathroom.

The balcony in his room gave him a clear view of the land he was staying in, and despite the situation, the demigod couldn't help but admired the scenery. Hyrule Kingdom, as the Princess had told him, resembled one of those cute European towns back home, but in a much larger scale. Like any capital of any country, the place was busy. The son of Poseidon could make out several different species of civilians milling on the streets, occasionally, he could see a carriage speeding through. The scene gave him a queasy in his stomach.

He had shared with Annabeth the idea that one day, they could stay in New Rome, go to college, graduate, get a job, and well… settle down. No more trouble, no more running away, no more monsters, and no more gods with unexpected quests. Just themselves, together.

Back when he confessed his dream to Annabeth, it seemed just like what it was: a far-fetched dream. Then they made it out of Tartarus, the Giant War, and their High school years, Percy dared to hope that maybe his fantasy would come true.

Sounds of footsteps pulled him away from his thoughts. The Half-blood threw one last lingering glance at the skyline and turned around, facing a familiar, stoic-faced blond.

"Dude," Percy jabbed playfully at Link, holding out his arms out exaggeratedly, "have anyone ever taught you to knock?"

"The door was opened." The swordsman said, his face still as impassive as ever.

"Right, of course. My bad" Percy rolled his eyes, grinning. And judging from the slight twitch at the corner of the shorter male's eye, his sarcasm didn't go undetected, and Percy thought he could detect a smallest hint of a smile on the blonde's face as he turned and beckoned him to follow.

"Where are we going?" Percy asked as they descended down the stairs two steps at a time, and as usual, Link ignored him. The demigod was seriously starting to consider whether if he could get away with pushing the blond down the stairs.

Fortunately for Link, before Percy could make up his mind, they reached what Percy supposed was the castle's garden. The place had everything the Half-blood expected a royal's backyard would have: fountains, statues and busts, small lakes and rivers with marble bridges, plants and bushes trimmed and cared to the very last leaf. In other words, the place kinda reminded him of the gardens on Olympus except this place was simpler, and less decorative golden statues of scowling gods and goddesses.

"Nice place." Percy complimented, "But I'm guessing you didn't pull me out of my temporary room just to take me on a nice walk, huh?" He pushed forward and stopped, looking at Link dead in the eyes. "But if you did, I gotta warn you buddy: I don't swing that way."

His joke was met with a blank stare from Link, much like the one he received after he told the Stolls brothers their last name was ironic. The demigod's smile faltered a bit when the swordsman still refused to give a reaction.

"Gods! Does anything ever get to you, man?" Percy bit back a laugh as Link pushed passes him impatiently, but not without a very obvious eye roll and a slight upward tug on his lips. The blond wordlessly thanked the goddesses as they reached their destination before the taller teen could crack anymore jokes.

Zelda was waiting for them in a small clearing in the garden. The Princess had set up a small table with three chairs. Sitting on top of the polished surface of the white table was a basket full of all short of bread and bake-goods. Percy's eyes immediately snapped up to the food on the table. He hadn't eaten anything since his interrupted date with Annabeth and _man_ , that felt like centuries ago.

Zelda noticed his longing gaze on the basket immediately. Swallowing down a giggle, she explained: "I talked to my father. We think that it would be beneficial for both of us if we… well, _exchange information_. He wanted to take you to the royal studies, but I disagreed, I think a more… casual setting might help you relax more, you don't seem like someone who are… quite comfortable with formality. So I suggested this picnic, I really hope you can eat Hylian food."

Somehow, Percy shoed the demand of food screaming in his brain: "Hylian?"

"Oh, that's what we are. Me and Link, and everyone else who have pointy ears, I mean."

The demigod gave her a very intelligent response: "Huh."

A moment of awkward silence followed, Percy looked around and realized that Link was still there, standing half-hidden between the line of bushes. The little bastard didn't even bother to hide his annoying grin, he must be really enjoying the less-than-smooth interaction between the teen and the Princess. However, he was also eyeing the basket with that glint in his eyes, the type of glint that the demigod had seen in the Stolls brothers' eyes when they "expressed" the idea of heisting a candy store in the middle of a war.

Thankfully, the Princess wasn't oblivious to the fact that they were all starving, and in no time, the trio was seated comfortably around the table. Link and Percy wasted no time wolfing down their food as fast as they could while Zelda calmly chewed on her pastry and flipping through a small leather book.

But the comforting silence could only last for so long. Zelda closed her books and looked up at the boys, who were in the middle of trying to whack each other's slices of bread out of their hands, and cleared her throat, successfully in snapping them both out of their silly game.

"So Percy," She started, "since you're our guest, I think you should ask the first question."

"Ask the first question?" Percy cocked his head, his mouth straining to fight back a full smile, "What are we playing, Twenty Questions game?"

"I- What?" Zelda asked, confused. Even Link stopped his chewing to listen in.

Percy wiped the breadcrumbs off his mouth, hiding a grin: "It's a game from where I come from. It's simple: you ask a question, I answer honestly, then I ask a question and you answer; again and again 'til we hit the twentieth."

"Oh, that sounds interesting."

Percy shrugged: "It's just a small party game really, extremely fun when you're playing with a large group of friends, preferably close friends, it could get pretty wild depend on what kind of question you're asking."

Zelda looked a bit skeptical, while Link had gotten a very intrigued look on his face.

"Right, the first question…" Percy trailed off, his index finger tapping in a steady rhythm against the table's surface. His bright green eyes scanned the perfectly trimmed garden and landed on a small statue nearby.

The statue was nothing too impressive, it was small and crafted entirely out of stone, shaped like one of those round Russian dolls with a kind smiling face, arms folded in front of its chest and a pair of small wings sprouting on its back. True, the statue wasn't very special, and Percy might not have paid any attention to it if he hadn't seen a dozen one like this on his way here. The statue was symbolic at least, could be some sort of popular religion.

"Is there any… pantheon or religion here?"

Zelda blinked, clearly not anticipating the question: "Pantheon?"

"I meant gods or goddesses. Does your culture have any of those?"

"Well, yes. Our entire land, Hyrule, was created from the Three Goddesses themselves: Din, Farore and Nayru."

Percy raised an eyebrow: "Just _three_ Goddesses?"

The blonde Hylian frown: "Actually, there's also Hylia. Long story short: after the three Goddesses created Hyrule, they left behind part of their power, and Hylia was given the task of protecting it. No one actually knows how she came to be, but Hylia has always been an important part of our existence."

The blonde took a deep breath: "What about you Percy? Does your world have any gods or goddesses?"

Percy flashed back to all of the Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Nordic shenanigans he had had the _unpleasant_ of going through, and his brain started scrambling to think of a way to explain without short-circuiting everyone's brains.

 _What would Annabeth say?_

"My world is very… complicated." He combed his hand through his unkempt mob of black hair and looked at Zelda, "From the way you were saying, it sounds like everyone on Hyrule, regardless of species, all believe in the Three Goddesses plus Hylia, right?"

"We don't just _believe_ in them, Percy, they're real." Percy did not miss the way Link and Zelda's expression shifted into something sadder… more wistful as she said it.

 _Bad experience with big, important deities huh? Welcome to the club._

"Right. You see, the thing with humanity is that… we are very-" _weird, messed up, nutz,_ "-diverted." He decided, "Seven billions different people, seven billions different, uh, mindsets." _Wow, those SAT actually did something,_ "The point is, we believe in different things, a lot of different things."

He left the thought hanging, but Zelda caught on: "You're saying that in your world, there're a lot of…' _rumors'_ about different gods and goddesses," Percy nodded, "and you don't know which one is real?"

He pondered a bit about this for a split. It was true that he didn't know for sure if deities like Jesus was real, but so far, he had seen living proves of Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Nordic. Heck, his dad was a well-known god! But they didn't need to know that, at least _not yet_.

"That's right. Even though some of them are real, I doubt everyone believes it" Percy said, praying to whichever gods or goddesses that oversee the art of hiding information and telling half-truth. "Humanity _is_ diverted." He added for good measure, and somehow managed not to chuckle nervously at the end of the sentence.

"That sounds very… intriguing." Zelda said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Nah," Percy smirked, "it's 'kay, you can say it's weird or messed up or whatever, I won't judge."

While the Princess blushed and stammered, Link gave the demigod a wink and a small grin, to which he returned gladly.

"So…" Percy continued, looking for an easier subject to talk about, and a small idea worn=med its way into his head. "Are you guys a thing?"

Link nearly choked on his fifth slice of pie and Zelda jerked so bad she nearly dropped her book.

"Wh-what do you mean?" The Princess forced the words out.

"You know what I mean~" The Half-blood drawled. He was no Piper, but he did learn a thing or two from her. And it seemed like he had accomplished his mission: while Link had successfully smoothed his flustered face back to its emotionless state, Zelda was _far_ from achieving his level of calmness.

"You think- Link and I are- Percy!" She exclaimed when the demigod burst out laughing.

"Okay- okay!" Percy wheezed through his laughter, "I was kiddin', please don't kill me." The last sentence was aim at Link, who was also snickering at the whole absurdness of the situation despite himself and Zelda's glaring.

For a moment, Percy felt like the how a normal teenager should felt: happy, carefree, and no looming gods with deadly prophecy of death. But like anything good that had ever happened during his High-school-demigod years, it didn't last long.

A woman rushed in the garden, her painted face grim. And Percy had had enough bad news in his life to know what the news' deliver's expression would be like. And the look on Impa's face made him thought that someone had, or about to die.

Before anyone could ask her who had just drop dead, she calmly pulled a small letter envelope out of her sleeve, tossed it on the table like it had personally insulted her grandmother.

The envelope looked like any regular old postcard, but what managed to send shivers up the back of his neck was the seal stamp. It was bright orange, with the letters "CHB".

Impa looked directly at Percy but not even her soul-chilling stare could drown out the sound blood rushing in his ears. She said:

"This is for you."


	7. Chapter 7: Get ready

**Chapter 7: Get ready**

 **All characters belong to Nintendo or Rick Riordan.**

Percy remembered the last time he had received a letter, it was from his dad, and he remembered feeling like his stomach was doing back-flips, and then it dropped and sank through the floor beneath his feet.

This was the second time he received a letter, and the effect it had on his was way worse than the first time. Blood was rushing in his ears, and he didn't know what to think; _is there even an appropriate reaction to stuffs like this?_

Nevertheless, Percy picked up the envelope gingerly like it was a ticking bomb and turned it over to inspect it. The piece of paper was bland and spotless; there was a neat roll of handwritten letters at the corner of the envelope. It said ' _to: Perseus Jackson'._

"Perseus Jackson?" Zelda pondered over his shoulders.

"That's my full name… Percy's short for 'Perseus'." He said distractedly, his finger running over the black ink and the seal. His eyebrows furrowed, "Nobody here knows that."

Zelda frowned then she turned to Impa, her voice urgent and rushed: "Do you know who sent it?"

"If we did, we would have brought them here to you, Princess." Impa shook her head, "The letter just appeared on my desk a few minutes ago."

"Did you open it?" Asked the blonde Hylian.

Impa grimaced: "I did try, the seal wouldn't budge, I even tried tearing it open, it was like trying to rip metal."

Biting her lips, she turned to Percy and suggested: "Percy, why don't you try opening it?"

 _Yeah, because what else was he supposed to do with it? Swallow it?_

As carefully and as slowly as possible, Percy pealed the orange seal off and slowly slid the paper out of the envelope. When he was sure that it wouldn't blow up in his face, the demigod finally pulled the letter out.

The note was short, and it was written in Ancient Greek, because Percy could fully understand it. There was no signature or name, and the handwriting looked completely unfamiliar to him. He glanced at Zelda, who was looking at the letter with a confused expression, clearly not familiar to the language. He decided to read it out loud; after all, he didn't have any more clues about what this was than any of them.

' _Dear Perseus,_

 _You probably don't know us, but we know you and how to get you home. We know you don't have any reason to trust us, but we assure you we mean you no harm._

 _Meet us at the Gerudo Great Skeleton at 00:00 on the next new moon (*) if you're willing._

 _P.S: You don't have to go alone, but you_ _shouldn't_ _bring the Princess or the Knight, it will make things a bit more complicate.'_

"Well, _'you shouldn't bring your friends'_ … Yeah, that doesn't scream 'IT'S A TRAP' _at all_." Percy muttered 'cause when in doubt, sarcasm solves all. Turning to Zelda, he asked the simplest question his brain had to offer: "What's Gerudo Great Skeleton?"

To Percy's surprise, it was Link who answered: "It's exactly what it is, a great skeleton in Gerudo desert. I've been there, I can take you there."

Before Percy could say anything, Zelda beat him to the punch: "What? Link, you can't be serious about going. The letter said-"

"-It most likely is a trap, Princess." The swordsman cut off gravely, "and if it is, I don't think you would like to leave Percy there alone."

"I-" Zelda halted, clearly rethinking the matter through.

Percy decided to interrupt before they completely forgot that he was still there: "Guys, guys, chill!" That got their attention, "Who said I'd be going?" That was an obvious lie and the demigod cringed internally the moment that false claim left his lips. Who was he kidding? Of course he would be going. Even if this was a set up to get him kill, it also could be his only chance of understanding the big picture, of what the heck is going on, and maybe, _just maybe_ , get him a clue of how to get home.

"I mean," He amended, "I'm definitely going, but… you don't have to come with me."

Too late, the Princess had already made up her mind: "Percy, we're not letting you go alone. Link's right, it could be a trap, and the Gerudo Dessert's a dangerous place, you'll need help. We're coming with you, and that's final." She declared, and turned to Impa, "Tell my father that I'm going out to see Urbosa tonight, do not tell him about the letter, alright?"

Impa's eyebrows raised slightly: "I hope you know what you're doing, your Highness." She gave Percy one last threatening glare before stalking off.

Percy watched her go until the woman was out of sight, then he turned to Zelda: "You really made up your mind huh?"

"Yes." Her answer was simple, but it was strong and unwavering. Percy recognized the tone well, he himself had used that tone many times, when he was determined to walk the Underworld to bring back his mom, that time when he ran away from Camp with Annabeth and Tyson to rescue Grover, and he still remembered that time when he was told to stay put, but he went anyway, because Annabeth was in danger. He couldn't see why the Hylian Princess was so determined to go, but he knew there was no stopping her now.

"Well, since you all decided to accompany me on my killer quest," He half-joked, attempted to loosen the tension, "I think you should know something about me first, to make things less confusing, just in case…"

Percy trailed off and took in a deep breath, he knew from the beginning that a full explanation was inevitable, but that didn't mean he wanted it to happen so early. But he had already said it, so there's no going back now. Better than to do it on his own term, right?

"Remember what I said 'bout gods and all the stuff? Well…" Percy tried to think carefully about his next words, "I'm, uh, I'm a son of one of them." Probably not the best way to phrase it, but he did his best.

Zelda reacted exactly how the teen thought she would, but more "princess-ly". The Princess furrowed her eyebrows, her lips parted and closed again, finally, she asked:

"Pardon me?" which Percy figured was royal speech for ' _The heck did you just said?'_

The demigod dragged his hand across his face, already regretting his not-so-thought-out decision.

"There are a lot of pantheons in my word, and so far, I've seen four of them: Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse; and I'm a Greek demigod: half human, half god. Or more specifically, my mom is human, ND dad is a god"

Zelda bit her lips; she and Link shared another look at each other like they were trying to decide if the black-hair teen was indeed out of his mind or not and what would be the best course of action if that was the case.

Not giving them a chance, Percy hurried up with his speech: "I know it sounds crazy, but in my world, that's not uncommon. Heck, there're like more than a thousand of demigods like me running and kicking around back at home."

"Percy," Zelda interrupted before the teen could freak out, "I believe you."

"Wait, hold on, _really?_ " The Half-blood asked incredulously, not believing his luck. Usually, this kind of talk would end up getting you a guaranteed room in the nearest mental hospital. He still remembered his first day at Camp, and he still recalled how long it took him to actually except the fact that his dad is a god.

"Demigods," the Princess spoke the word carefully, tasting it on her tongue, "while that is unheard in Hyrule, we are still involved with gods in… other ways." The Hylian tried to keep her voice light and neutral, but she was looking at the ground, her expression bitter and wistful.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing." Zelda said, her voice closed to snapping.

Percy raised his hands up defensively: "Sorry, I- I didn't mean to pry."

"It's alright." She waved her hand, frowning, "it's just… not something I want to talk about, not right now, at least." Not wanting to get on his host's bad side, Percy let the matter go. Zelda cleared her throat and glanced at the letter, "Anyway, the next new moon is… approximately a week away, I think. That should be enough time for us to get there if we depart tomorrow morning. Here, let me show you the route…"

The Princess trailed off, fumbling with the folds in her belt before her face fell a bit. She looked at Percy sheepishly: "I left the Sheikah Slate in my room," Percy assumed the 'Sheikah Slate' was that weird tablet thing she was playing with, "you should rest, it'll be a long way ahead tomorrow. I'll give you some clothing for the road… and would you like to bring any extra weapon? Shield? Bow and arrows perhaps?"

The blonde asked the question like she was asking whether if he would like an extra drink. Percy chuckled and patted his pocket: "Nah, just Riptide is enough."

Zelda grinned slightly, her eyes sparked: "You have to tell me how that sword of yours works sometimes."

"Sure," The demigod shrugged, "We've got a whole week of _absolutely_ _boring, uneventful_ road trip ahead, haven't we?"

"Aren't you a funny one?" Beaming, the Princess stood up, "It's settled then: we'll go at dawn tomorrow morning. Leave the packing to me and Link; we'll set up a route, too. You go and get some rest."

The conversation pretty much ended there with Percy going his separate way while Link and Zelda ventured deeper into the garden, discussing something about mountains and lakes that just went right over his head.

It took a while for him to return to his room, having to navigate through so many unfamiliar hallways. The demigod plopped down on his bed, his hands once again tracing the outline of the envelope distractedly.

He missed his home. He missed his friends and family. His mom and stepdad must have known about his disappearance by now and Percy felt bad for leaving them so suddenly like that again. And he was so worried, too. So much was happening back home before he got sucked here, so much was still going on without him. He still remembered teaching that Magnus kid, Annabeth's Nordic cousin, How to Save the World 101, and they haven't heard anything from him since then. The last time he was at Camp, he was busy attacking a gigantic, golden, naked statue of Nero/Apollo whom Apollo himself (or Lester) took down by making it sneezed its head off, literally. Good ol' time.

Now, his whole world was still in crisis and he was here, preparing for a road trip. It wasn't his fault, but Percy couldn't shake off the feeling of guilt and uneasiness. What if something big was going down at home and he wasn't there to help? What if he came back, and found his home in ruin? He knew he had to return home but what if there was no home to return to? He knew how many times he had declared that he was done with 'hero-ing', but he couldn't help it. The gods were right; he was too loyal to stay away for long.

Sleep didn't come easy for the demigod that night. But he did managed, only to woke up after what felt like a few seconds.

Tossing and turning, Percy finally gave up on trying to coax himself to sleep. Sitting up on his too comfortable bed, he glanced out the balcony. The dark sky outside had a yellowish hue to it, but the sun was nowhere to be seen. He guested it was about three or four in the morning; way too early to be awake.

Someone had got into his room and left several sets of clothing on his desk, which while was appreciated, Percy found that pretty creepy. Nevertheless, the teen slipped on his jacket and left the room. After a few minutes of aimless wandering, the demigod stumbled upon what looked like a training ground.

The area was, of course, vast and empty, or at least that what he thought, until he heard someone grunting, and the sounds of metal hitting wood repeatedly. Link was standing alone in a corner of the yard, under a tree. The blond was hacking at a training dummy with precise and skill. With every time the blade hit its target, Link let out a soft grunt.

"Hey." Percy called out, and the blond halted mid swing. Other than that, he betrayed no emotion of being surprised.

"Hey." He greeted back, putting his huge sword down, "Couldn't sleep either?"

Percy shook his head, "Nah."

"Nightmare?"

"No."

Link frowned: "You don't sound happy about that."

Percy looked down, judging his options: "It's… Well, back where I come from, us demigods have a lot of dreams, and our dreams are normally not just dreams, you know…"

"You have… prophetic dreams?" Link guested, squinting.

"I, uh," Percy swallowed, thinking back to the old dummy Oracle who used to sit in the Big House's artic, "I wouldn't call it 'prophetic', they're more like… past and present… Either ways, they're messages; they show us what was going on here and there, the cause of something, or hints of what's coming."

Link stayed silent, digesting the piece of information while Percy continued: "These dreams always come in forms of nightmares or omens; they're definitely not pleasant at all. But now, I was hoping they would give me some sort of insight 'bout what's going back home and all that." The teen let out a bitter snort, "Funny, isn't it? I used to hate those dreams a lot, but now, I'm starting to miss 'em."

The duo stayed silent, Percy with nothing left to say. The corners of Link's mouth tightened. The blond let out a soft breath before giving Percy a small pat on the back.

"Well," he said, "I won't pretend that I understand much about the whole dream thing, but you need to let out some stress." He gestured toward the wooden dummy, "Go ahead, give it a hit, I can always get another one."

The Half-blood chuckled: "Thanks, dude, you sure know how to cheer a guy up."

Link tilted his head, puzzled: "What's a dude?"

"Uh…" He really did not want to mess American slang up, "never mind." Thankfully, Link merely shrugged the matter off.

Pulling Riptide out, the teen gave his trusty sword an experienced swing before jabbing it at the dummy multiple times. He could felt Link's blue eyes on him the entire time as he proceeded to lay waist to the training dummy. Finally, with a determined swing and a muffed shout, the Celestial Bronze blade slashed down and the dummy fell in half.

Link nodded, his eyebrows slightly raised: "You're good. Can all demigods fight like that?"

"Well, not really. You see, there're a lot of gods in my world, and every one of them has several special… talents. That talent's usually passed down to their children. So every single demigod had their own thing. Some's good with a sword, while other prefers bow and arrows, there're demigods who specialized in healing, art or music."

"I see," Link nodded, "what 'bout you?"

"Me?"

"What can you do?"

"I… My dad's Poseidon, he's the god of the sea, so I can basically control water to an extent."

"And you can talk to horses."

Percy snorted: "Yeah, in my world, Poseidon created horses so… that's something I can do."

"Fun." Link commended and Percy barked out a laugh. The two lapsed into silence again, and Link glanced at Percy's bronze sword.

"I've never seen a sword like that before." He said, "May I…?"

"Uh, sure, I don't see why not." The demigod shrugged and handed the sword to Link, who took it gingerly and gave the blade a few swings and jabs.

"So? What's your verdict 'O Lord of the Swords?" Percy joked.

"The blade's light, too light for me perhaps." Link shrugged, "But everyone has their own preferences I supposed."

"Uh huh," Percy agreed, "Riptide works perfectly for me."

"Riptide, huh? That's a nice name." Link mused, "What's the story of your sword?"

"The story of my what?"

"Your sword." The blond traced his fingers along the flat side of the blade, "You called it 'Riptide'. When an object has a name, there's usually a history behind it."

 _Well, he's not wrong…_

So Percy told the swordsman the shortest version he could think of about Zoe Nightshade, the Titan Atlas and Hercules.

"That's quite a tale." Link hummed.

"Yeah, my world is very… _complicated_." Percy smiled, rubbing the back of his head, "What 'bout you Link? You've got anything exciting?"

"I…" The blond looked down at his hands, hesitating, "I don't know what to say."

"It's okay," Percy reassured, "you don't have to tell me anything, I won't pry."

"Right." Link's posture was tight as he handed the sword back to Percy, "We'll talk sometimes."

With that, the blond promptly walked away, leaving Percy alone on the gray empty ground with a bronze, glowing sword.


	8. Chapter 8: Killer Quest

**Chapter 8: Killer quest**

 **All characters belong to Nintendo or Rick Riordan.**

Breakfast was light and quick, followed up by a small briefing from Zelda, who looked even more anxious than usual. The Princess moved back and forth between their bags of equipment, scowling and poking at different stuffs, and then turned back to frowning at her Sheikah Slate. Link left her alone to her inspecting and poking, and Percy wisely followed his example.

They didn't pack much, only a few sets of cloths all stuffed in one backpack, a tight pouch of gems called 'Rupees' which was the land's currency. In another pouch secured by Link's horse, Epona's, saddle were several glass bottles, each contained a brightly colored liquid. 'Elixirs', Link called them; they were for battling the desert heat and other unforgiving weather conditions. Apparently, they could also give temporary energy boosts like a can of Red Bull, which was pretty neat.

Much to Zelda's dismay, her royal steed Nayru was still too injured to travel, so instead she taken another horse from the castle's stable. The grey stallion, whose name was Chie, was standing next to Epona and Silk, idly watching their owners.

The trio was dressed for traveling. Percy was given a greyish brown hooded cape in addition to his new sea green tunic and beige pants. Riptide was nested in his belt pouch right next to his water canteen.

Link had a dark blue cape over his blue tunic, covering parts of his sword and shield, even though it was pretty useless seeing that those weapons were bigger than Link himself. The swordsman had also brought with him a white and blue bow with a large quiver stocked with a colorful, mismatched collection of arrows.

Zelda had ditched her royal blue suit in favor of a simpler, less flashy red and green tunic with an ashen grey cloak, which was a smart move in Percy's opinion; the bright blue blue suit could attract way too much attention.

Like Link, the Princess also carried a bow and quiver, but her bow was smaller and wooden and it was decorated with several colorful beads.

The Princess caught his eyes and gave him a small smile, tapping the bow: "You like it? It's a gift from the Ritos. Link has been giving me lessons."

"Cool." Commented Percy.

"Do you shoot?" Zelda asked.

"Nah," The demigod shook his head, laughing slightly, "I suck at archery. One time, I managed to miss a target that was less than fifteen feet away from me and nearly skewered a guy who was twenty feet away from the target. After that, nobody let me near a bow anymore."

The Hylian inclined her head with a smile that resembled a smirk, "I'll keep that in mind…" She turned and raised her voice a little, making sure Link heard her, "Alright, I think that's everything we need for this trip. Worst comes to worst, we'll improvise."

That sounded like a solid plan to Percy, seeing that his life as a demigod rarely ever stuck to any well-laid plans or as a matter of facts, any plans at all.

Showing Percy her Slate, Zelda ran her finger along a white line, "We'll stick to the path here, it should take us straight to Gerudo Desert. I heard that there's a new market place somewhere in this area so we could refill our supplies there."

"Sounds good enough for me." Percy grinned, "Is there anything else I need to know before we go?"

"Yes," Link cut in, "there could me monsters on the way, so always keep an eye out."

Well, now it was sounding more and more like an average demigod's field trip by the seconds.

"What kind of monsters?" He asked.

Link grimaced slightly: "Bokoblins, Moblins,"-

-" _What?_ " Percy choked. And he thought Greeks had funny names.

"I know," Zelda jumped in, snorting, "I don't know what were they _thinking_ when they called them that."

The Half-blood laughed: "Gods, I actually felt bad for the guys!"

Link sighed: "I know the names are dumb, and to be honest, they're not that much of a threat either. Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt to be careful."

"Aye aye, Captain." Percy joked.

The blond Hylian grimaced, fighting back a grin: "Whatever, let just go, we're wasting daylight."

His request didn't leave much space for argument, so the trio shouldered their backpacks, and five minutes later, they were on their way.

The scenery was as beautiful as always. Growing up in Manhattan, his natural surrounding was all concrete buildings and skyscrapers. Everywhere he looked there were traces of constructions and over-civilization.

Hyrule was nothing like that. The Kingdom was a land of evergreen spreading in every direction. Wildlife was blossoming and bursting everywhere. The air was perfectly fresh and free of that smoky smell back in the cities. The atmosphere was peaceful and undisturbed, very thing was quiet except for the sound of horse hooves pounding on the dirt path, his own steady breathing, the occasional bird chirping and tree rustling in the wind. Grover would absolutely fall in love with this place.

He thought about the death of the god Pan in the cave under the Labyrinth and wondered what Hyrule would be like a few thousand years later, when civilization started to rise, when they invented technology and machines started to be developed. He knew that was inevasible, but sill, it never hurts to hope.

The first part of the morning was uneventful to a degree which Percy might consider _boring_. Following Link's advice from before, the young demigod kept a keen eye on their surrounding all the way, but all he saw was trees, trees and more trees. He had been riding for so long it actually began to hurt and his ADHD was beginning to drive him insane. So it was a relief when Zelda slowed down and declared a lunch break.

They stopped under a patch of trees and dismounted. As Zelda secured the horses to the nearest tree, Link and Percy scoured the area for tree branches. Seeing that they were particularly surrounded by trees, it wasn't hard. They got back with their arm full and set up a fire. Zelda pulled out a small pot from a backpack while Link rummaged through his bag of supplies.

"What do you want to eat?" The blond asked, poking the fire. Percy raised his eyebrows. Not only he knows how to fight, but Link can also cook? That's pretty impressive.

He swallowed the urge to ask for blue pancake and said instead: "Anything really, I'm not picky." He thought for a second and added, "Anything _but_ seafood."

"How about something light? Like vegetable?" Zelda suggested.

"Sure," Percy said, fighting down a grimace as his regret rose, "Like I said, I'm not picky." He echoed.

Link offered them a small smile before pulling out several carrots and mushrooms from the bag and began cooking. Percy had to admit, the blond knew what he was doing and he did it fast. And _dam_ , he didn't think carrots could ever taste this good. Now he could finally understand how Piper managed to survive as a vegetarian.

Link inhaled his food almost as quick as he could cook them while Zelda took on a more… moderate pace. The Princess took her time flicking through her Sheikah Slate for a moment before showing it to the group.

"We're currently here." She said, pointing at a white arrow on the screen. Not that Percy needed the explanation; the map on the Slate was exactly like a GPS, and he told her just that.

"A what?" She asked, puzzled.

"A GPS," He said, "It's like that," He waved at the brown tablet, "You tell it where you want to go and it tells you which the shortest route was."

"That's amazing!" The Hylian exclaimed, completely forgot what she was saying with her slate, "How exactly does that work?" She demanded, sounding just like Annabeth when she was determined to learn something. The comparison sent a pang through his gut.

"I, uh," He swallowed, looking away, "I dunno."

"You _don't know?_ " Zelda asked incredulously. _Yup, she definitely sounded like Annabeth_ , "How could you not know something as wonderful as that?" She halted, seemingly realizing how uncomfortable she was making him, "Sorry, I just thought that such a technological breakthrough like that should be considered… worth the time to study. I mean, don't you want to know how everything around you works?"

Percy tapped his index finger against the fabric of his pants. It's funny really; he had never given it that much thought. But then again, his life was so far consisted of life or death situations and crazy gods with serious family issues, he didn't exactly had time to think much about anything.

He recalled having a conversation long ago with his mom. He remembered her saying _'when there were too much of something, people started taking it for granted'_. The teen was little back then, and the sentence held little interest in him. Now, looking back at the world, he couldn't agree more, and he wasn't about to lie about that.

"I've never given it that much thought." He admitted, "The thing is… comparing to your world, mine world's technology is much more advance than yours. So, a GPS is honestly not that much of a big deal there. Beside, as a demigod, coming in contact with technology is never a good idea; they act as a monster magnet to us."

"Your world has monsters, too?" Link asked.

Percy grimaced: "Loads of them. They actively hunt demigods like me. Apparently, we demigods have a significant smell to the monsters; the more powerful a demigod, the stronger the smell, the more monsters they attracted. That's why we have to learn to fight."

Zelda bit her lip and asked hesitantly: "You said your parent is a god, right? Don't gods supposed to, I don't know, protect you?"

The Half-blood stood up and pulled out Riptide. Uncapping the pen, Percy gave his sword a light flip before turning back to Zelda, who flinched slightly under his gaze.

"The gods back at our world, they're not like that," He grimaced, "They don't pay attention to you, especially if you're their kids. I never knew who my dad was until he needed me to save his ass. My girlfriend, Annabeth, ran away from home when she was seven and her godly mom never cared whether she lives or dies. And there are countless other cases like those."

The Hylians didn't say anything, and Percy took it as a sign to continue. Heck, he had told them too much already, why not tell them everything?

"Then Greek had always had serious family issues, even long before the gods came to be." He grinned a little, trying to lighten up the mood, "It's a long story."

Zelda glanced at Link, who shrugged, and said: "We have time."

"Alright, you said three goddesses shaped your world, right?" Zelda nodded.

"Well, nobody was really sure how my world came to be, but according to the Ancient Greek, before the world existed, there was just this big mass of nothingness called Chaos. Then one day, Chaos must have felt too lonely or something, because he decided to create the first two being ever: the sky, Ouranos, and the earth, Gaia." His face scrunched up at he spoke out his not-so-beloved great-grandma.

"Long story short, they fell in love and have a bunch of kids called the Titans. They had a second and a third set of kids called the Cyclops and the Hundred-hand Ones, but those kids were… misshaped. So Ouranos, tossed them into the deepest pit of Hell, Tartarus," A waver entered Percy's voice as he choked out the name of the Pit.

"Angered, Gaia plotted her husband's demise with one of her Titan son, Kronos, the Titan of time. They succeeded, and Kronos became the King of the world. He married Rhea, and had six kids, three girls and three boys, who were the gods. Kronos feared that his children would usurp him like he did with his father, so he ate his children."

Percy paused and glanced at Link and Zelda. The former had a small look of disbelief on his face, while the later looked slightly sick.

"But his wife managed to save one of his sons, Zeus, and hid him away. When Zeus grown up, he came back, rescued his siblings, chopped his father to pierces and tossed him into Tartarus. The three sons rolled dice and Zeus became god of the sky and lightning, my dad, Poseidon won the ocean and Hades got the Underworld, the land of the dead. The gods built their new palace upon Mount Olympus, that's why they're often called the Olympians."

"Over the centuries, there are more and more gods joining the fray, but there're twelve most well-known one: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades is The Big Three; the three oldest goddesses Hera, goddess of Marriage and a royal pain in the ass, Demeter, goddess of crops and harvest, Hestia, goddess of the hearth who later willingly gave up her spot for Dionysus, god of wine."

"There's Athena, goddess of wisdom and war craft; Artemis, eternal maiden and goddess of the hunt; her twin brother, Apollo, god of the sun and music, even though his Haikus are awful; Ares, god of war; Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty; Hephaestus, god of volcano and blacksmith," Counting on his fingers, Percy smiled, "and a hundred more gods which I can't remember."

Link's mouth was slightly apart, visibly struggling to keep up with the stream of information. Zelda had taken out her leather book and was furiously taking notes.

"That's a lot to take in." The Princess admitted, "Your world truly is fascinating."

"Yeah, and there's still a lot more." Percy chuckled, "Maybe I'll tell you more some other time."

"I'll be looking forward to it." The blonde said, completely serious.

After that, without much left to say, the trio packed up, and continued their trip. They made it about twenty minutes before they caught sight of their first trouble.

It was just a small silhouette in the distance, but Link immediately tense up and pulled his horse to an abrupt halt, prompting Zelda and Percy to stop as well.

"What's wrong?" Zelda asked as they dismounted, but Percy had already known the answer. He had seen that expression Link was wearing too many time, and it could only mean some bad news.

"Monster?" He guessed, glancing at the black dot pacing back and forth in the middle of the wheat field.

"A Lynel." The swordsman said. The name meant nothing to Percy, but Zelda let out a small gasp.

"A Lynel?" She repeated in disbelief, "I thought there was no Lynel in this area?"

"There wasn't supposed to be any." Link grunted.

"Guys," Percy piped in, "what's a Lynel?"

"One of the most fearsome monsters in Hyrule." Link mumbled, "It's not the strongest or the fastest there is, but its intelligent and weapons skill made it dangerous."

"There are very few Lynels on Hyrule," Zelda muttered, "however, that number had been increasing significantly over the last few months. We're afraid that-" She stopped abruptly and looked away for a flicker of second, "-that someone might get hurt!"

Percy frowned. He was pretty sure the Princess was about to say something else, but she didn't gave him much time to ponder over it. Turning to Link, she grabbed his arm and asked: "Link, we can't left it roaming around here like that; someone might stumbled upon it!"

Link wordlessly nodded and pulled out his sword, Percy followed suit and uncapped Riptide.

"So," he asked, "What's the plan?"

The blond Hylian didn't even stop to think: "Lynels have extreme hearing, so there's no point trying to sneak upon it. We outnumbered it, so that's an advantage. Attack simultaneously, confuse it, and bring it down."

"Okay, you take the left, I take the right?"

Link grinned and nodded. Turning to Zelda, he said: "Please stay here, Princess."

With that, the two swordsmen separated and slowly circle the beast. As they inched closer, the shape of the Lynel quickly became clearer. The great beast reminded Percy of those monstrous centaurs at the Giant War. It had the backside of a horse, the body of a man, and the head which resembled a misshaped lion with rusty red mane.

Like any centaurs, the beast carried a vicious looking bow with a quiver stocked full of bright yellow arrows. It also had a metal club which Percy had no desire of coming in contact with. Those hooves looked like they could leave footprints on solid rock, and those fangs could honestly scare a drakon away.

Percy could sense a source of water straight ahead; it was probably just a small creek or something, but that could give the son of Poseidon some serious advantage in a fight. The Half-blood knew he had to get closer. Unfortunately, unlike Link, Percy did not have a head full of golden locks to blend in perfectly with the yellow wheat field; his raven black mob of hair stood out like a shore thump in the bright scenery, and the Lynel's keen eyes immediately locked on to him.

The teen felt his blood ran cold as those steely golden eyes met his, and he prepared himself to leap out of the way when the monstrous horse charged forward. Instead, that never came. Link had chosen that precise moment to unleash an arrow at the back of the beast. Percy could hear the whistling of the arrow as it tore through the air and made itself at home at the back of the Lynel's neck. The great beast howled as bright electric current flowed from the arrow tip throughout its body, but it sounded more annoyed than pained.

 _Great, they had only angered it._

Momentary forgotten about Percy, the Lynel charged toward the blond swordsman. For something so big, it sure was fast. Link dove out of its way, but the beast changed direction just as quickly and swung its club. The hard steel met the blue metal of the Hylian shield with a deafening clang that left Percy's ears ringing.

As the blond kept the monster occupied, the demigod dashed forward the fight. Using his running momentum, he leaped into the air, landed on the beast horse's back and plucked his sword into the back of its neck, right where Link's arrow was.

The beast let loose another earth-shaking howl, but to Percy's surprised and dismay, it didn't die. The beast started buckling widely, and the demigod swore he could felt his brain rattling in his skull. Letting go of Riptide, he grabbed fists full of the Lynel red hair and hung on for dear life as it tried its best to get rid of the unwelcome weight.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Link standing a few feet away, staring at him and the Lynel with shock and worry. But Percy knew the blond couldn't do anything; he couldn't get close enough to use his sword without the risk of getting trample, he could shoot without the risk of accidently hitting Percy. The demigod knew he was on his own.

All the thrashing and screaming was not helping him think, he would have to let go soon, but the teen couldn't find a way safe enough to do that. Chances all, he would totally get turned into a Percy pancake the moment he hit the ground. Frantically, the Half-blood looked around and his eyes landed on the sparkling surface of water.

 _Of course, the creek!_

Using all of his might and his training, Percy gritted his teeth and pulled the Lynel's mane back, making it stumbled and steered it toward the water. Then, he did something incredibly risky and stupid: Using what left of his strength, the demigod somehow managed to plant his feet on the beast buckling back, crouching low and counting.

 _One, two, three!_

He launched himself upward just as the Lynel kicked up, and the momentum sent him flying straight over the beast head, into the water below with a splash.

Once the shock was over, the son of Poseidon could felt all of his sense sharpened and adrenaline rushed through his body. He stood up and faced the Lynel. Link was rushing toward them, but the beast had already bringing its club down on Percy's head. Rolling aside as the weapon hit the spot where he was a second ago, the Half-blood thrust his hand upward, and a jet of water hit the beast square in the face with the force of a sledge hammer. The monster fell back, right onto the glowing blade of Link's sword.

For all its worth, the Lynel went down silently. It dropped onto its knees, its head hung down and disintegrated into black smoke, leaving behind its unused bow, arrows and club. Zelda and Link was walking toward him, the former had a bid smile on her face while the later crouched down and picked something up.

"Your first Lynel." Link said proudly with a smile on his face as he put the object in Percy's palm. It was the Lynel's thick white horn.

"But you killed it, not me." Percy protested.

Link shook his head: "You did all the hard work, you earned it."

"Keep it Percy." Zelda urged, smiling, "Not many people can ride a Lynel that long."

The teen grinned lightly as he looked down at the horn on his hand. He remembered the first spoil of war he had, the Minotaur's broken horn. It didn't felt much like a victory back then, with his mom being kidnapped and all. The circumstance now was much nicer; no one was hurt, his friends was congratulating, and they were all feeling a little giddy after the danger was gone.

"Alright," The Half-blood gave up and stuffed the horn into his pouch, "I'll keep it, but only because you insisted."

Link waved his hand dismissively, "Pft, I won't need it, I have a dozen horns like that at home."

"Geez," Percy jabbed playfully, "show-off much?"

Zelda laughed and pushed both of them lightly, "Alright ladies, you're both pretty. Let's go back before you got into trouble again."

The rest of the day was peaceful. And that night, when they were sitting in the warm light of the fire, Percy couldn't help but felt grateful. Sure, life as a demigod is hard, but he had friends by his side. They still had a long way to go, but everything will be alright.


	9. Chapter 9: Little thoughts

**Chapter 9: Little thoughts**

 **Sorry it took so long for me to update. I have another project going and, unfortunately, school is a thing so… I might not be able to update as frequently as I did.**

 **Either way, I would like to thank you for all your support with this story.**

The trio agreed to take night shifts while the others were sleeping just in case. At first, Percy and Link wanted to take turn staying up by themselves so the Princess could get a full night sleep, but she didn't agree.

The reason she wanted to go on this quest in the first place was to prove that she could take care of herself, she didn't need two big, strong, men babying her.

Percy didn't argue any further when she told them that, he only raised his hands up in surrender and muttered something like _'just like Annabeth'_. Link took a bit more of convincing but in the end, when he was dragged away by a snickering Percy, the Knight finally resigned.

Even though, when the blond woke her up for her shift, it was nearly dawn and the sky was no longer dark. Zelda didn't get the opportunity to chew at him though, for the moment Link's head hit the pillow, he was completely out cold.

Sighing quietly, Zelda stretched and gave a massive yawn. She slowly got out from underneath her blanket and folded it carefully. As a natural early bird, the Princess didn't need much time to get ready. Five minutes later, she was pecked on a tree branch above their camping site with her bow and arrows.

The camp fire was long gone but there was no need to restart it; mornings in Hyrule had always been warm. The atmosphere was pleasant with a pinch of fog, everything was peacefully quiet and undisturbed. In other world, Hyrule mornings was perfect for Zelda.

Her male counterparts were, of course, still fast as sleep. Link was curled up in his sleeping bag, his blanket pulled up to his chin and the blond was snoring slightly. Percy, however, was way less… elegant than that. The demigod was lying spread-eagle on his blanket with a leg on top of Link, and there was a clear line of saliva running down from his mouth to his chin.

A small spark of mischief passed her mind and the Princess grinned. Slowly, she unhooked the Sheikah Slate from her belt and…

 _Snap!_

Zelda cringed slightly; never had the slate's snap sounded louder than that. Thankfully, the two swordsmen didn't even stir. Such heavy sleepers.

The photo was just _perfect_. The Hylian stiffed a giggle as she looked repeatedly at the picture and the real thing, her mind already making up twenty different ways to tease them with this.

Her amusement only grew when Link woke up and freaked out over the position he and the demigod were in. Zelda failed to contain her laughter as she watched Hyrule's chosen Hero scrambling madly away from Percy to save his dignity. She only laughed harder when Link noticed her and shot her a glare, which was rather counterproductive given his flushed face.

The Hero wasted no time or decency in kicking Percy awake, literally.

"Wha-? I'm up! I'm up!" The dark hair teen yelped as he jerked up, his head nearly hitting Link's in the process.

When the demigod realized what was going on, he made a face and grumbled at the blond but was too groggy to do anything else. He was definitely not a morning person.

Link started preparing breakfast and Zelda went down to lend a hand. Percy picked up a canteen and frowned.

"We're out of water." He informed, his voice still somewhat slurred together due to sleepiness, "There's a small river close by… Imma go get some more." His sentence blurred off into a yawn as the demigod lumbered away.

"Be careful Percy!" The Princess called after him as he disappeared into the bushes.

Link chuckled, "For a demigod, he doesn't have much godly traits, hm?"

"Oh shush!" Zelda pushed him a little, "You're not exactly a saint either, you know."

The swordsman merely rolled his eyes playfully as he continued his cooking.

"What are you making?" The blonde asked.

"Omelets… we're running out of food by the way."

Zelda frowned and peeped into the supply bag, and true enough, it was nearly empty.

"You guys eat too much." She complained, already mapping out the quickest route to the market place. It would take them at least a day to get there, but they could always improvise along the way.

"We can't exactly fight with empty stomachs." Link retorted, carefully putting the steaming omelets onto separate bowls and started devouring his own share of food.

Zelda picked up her bowl glanced at Percy's, and asked, "Should we get him?"

"I wouldn't bother," Link managed through each bites, "speak of the devil, and he shall appear."

Right on cue, the said demigod stumbled back into the clearing with twigs in his hair and a brand new energized bounce in his step.

"Hey guys!" He greeted, dangling the now full water canteens, "I'm back –Ooh! Is that omelet?!"

Zelda ignored the smug look Link was giving her and offer the bowl to the black hair teen, "Help yourself."

Percy didn't need to be told twice. He tossed the canteens down the grass, took the food and started eating with vigor before he even properly sat down.

"Calm down, you might choke." The Princess chided.

Predictably, her advice was completely ignored. She didn't complain, however, choosing to sit back and watch in slight amusement when the two boys started trying to steal food from each other's bowl, which led to a mini sword dual using their forks.

The blonde was amazed at how quickly Percy got along with the situation. He was pulled out of his home and tossed into a brand new environment, a brand new world even, and there he was, having fun and bonding with the two Hylians. The demigod was nothing if adaptive and carefree.

The morning was spent on horse's back, racing across the field of Hyrule, but things started to go wrong when they stopped for their lunch break.

The trio was tying their horses to a tree when a shrill cry cut through the tree from a distance, making all of them jumped.

"Did you hear that?" Zelda asked, and quickly realized how dumb her question was. "Sounds like someone's in trouble, we should check it out." She suggested and shouldered her bow.

The guys didn't need to be told twice. As they untied and mounted the horses, Percy chuckled dryly, "Charging head first into danger. Man, this is seriously giving me some nostalgia."

Zelda didn't to ask what he meant by that. From what the swordsman had told her, life as a demigod was dangerous. And if she was being completely honest, she was quite jealous of how Percy seemed to take all of it in stride, his confidence never wavered.

It didn't take them long to find the source of the scream. A young Hylian had somehow found her way in the middle of a Bokoblin Camp. Needless to say, the monsters did not like the arrangement.

"The hell are those?" Zelda heard Percy whispered somewhere to her left as they dismount and crept closer to the scene.

"Bokoblins." Link said.

"Those are Bokoblins?" Percy snorted, "They look even dumber than their names."

"Well," Zelda piped in, pulling back her bow and took aim, "Let's just say they're not any smarter either."

The Princess let her arrow loose and watched at it made itself at home at the back of a monster's head. The unlucky Bokoblin let out a screech as it busted into black smoke. Immediately, its friends whipped their heads around, trying to spot the commotion, the girl temporary forgotten.

"We'll distract them; you get the girl out of there." Percy said, and the two swordsmen charged into the open, screaming with their magic swords waving in the air like lunatics.

Zelda didn't hang around to see how well the distraction worked, the Hylian quickly ran up to the other girl, who was looking around scared and confused.

"Hey," The Princess grabbed the other Hylian's shoulder, "Are you okay?"

"I…I'm fine, thank you." The girl replied, her voice a bit dazed and her eyes unfocused.

"Can you walk?"

"Y… Yes, I think I can."

"Good," Zelda pat the other's back in encouragement, "Let's get out of here."

The Hylian nodded breathlessly as her Princess gently pulled her arm over her shoulders and the two of them started jogging away from the monster's camp. When they had gone far enough and the sound of fighting was barely audible, Zelda set them both down the grass and started checking the other for injuries. Surprisingly, there were none. The girl was perfectly fine.

However, just to be nice, the blonde asked again, "How are you feeling? Are you hurt?"

"No, I… I don't think so," The other muttered. She looked up at Zelda and whispered gratefully, "Thank you."

For the first time, Zelda noticed the girl's appearance. Her lush long brown hair framed her flawless skin nicely. Her eyelashes were dark and curled in just the right way, making her big emerald eyes stood out perfectly. The Princess realized the other girl was slightly taller and older than her, too.

 _Well, so much for referring to her as 'the girl'._

With her mouth suddenly a bit dry, The Princess swallowed and replied, hoping she didn't sound as awkward as she felt, "It was nothing, really," She chuckled nervously, "The guys did all the heavy works."

"Oh, you're too modest, dear" The girl –teen– laughed, "You saved my life, you were so brave." She praised.

But luck seemed to be on Zelda's side to day as before she could say anything embarrassing, Link and Percy arrived. Both suffered a few scratches and bruised, and the blond for some reason was holding a broken stick, but otherwise, the two looked alright.

Before any of them could say anything, the other teen's eyes snapped toward Link's sword and she gasped, "Oh dear Hylia! Is that the Master Sword? Wait, are you Link, the chosen hero?"

The said hero took a step back, obviously startled, but the brunette didn't stop there. She whipped around to face Zelda, her big emerald eyes filled with excitement.

"That would make you Princess Zelda, wouldn't it? Oh my goddesses! I was saved by the Princess and the Chosen Hero themselves! Best. Day. EVER!"

The blonde winced inwardly. Blowing their covers was absolutely not what she needed right now. Zelda toyed with the thought of denying their real identity for a second, but it was too late, the brunette had already saw Link's Master Sword. Maybe they could still make a deal and asked the other teen to keep secret.

However, the brunette's attention didn't stay long on the Hylians, as she turned and looked at Percy up and down before smiling and asked:

"And who might you be? I've never seen you in town before."

The demigod chuckled and scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "I'm, uh, I'm new here." If she noticed the lack of pointy ears on Percy, the other teen didn't mention it.

"My name is Alicia, what's yours?"

"Uhh, Percy, My name's Percy." The demigod said awkwardly as Alicia shuffled closer.

"That's a nice name. Is it short for anything, Percival, perhaps?

"Yeah… I mean, no!" Percy stammered, shaking his head, "It just Percy." He lied.

Zelda frowned as she watched the two interacted. The black-hair teen was obviously uncomfortable with what was going on, and the blonde knew she should do something about it, but she didn't know what. She glanced at Link for any suggestion, but the Knight looked as lost as she was.

By now, Alicia was shamelessly flirting with Percy, who looked like he was wishing the earth to open up right now and swallowed him whole. And when the brunette went as far as putting her hands on his chest and leaning closer, Zelda decided enough was enough.

"Hey!" She called, swiftly walking toward them with her hand raised, intending to put it on the other girl's shoulder, "You're making him uncomfortable, I think you should stop, now!"

The next moment happened in a blur.

As soon as Zelda's hand landed on Alicia's shoulder, the later spun around fast and shoved the blonde away. The brunette was impossibly strong; the sheer force from her shove sent the Princess right in to Link, crashing both of them painfully on to the ground.

The impact rattled her skull, but Zelda managed to roll back up and stood unsteadily on her feet. She quickly turned to look at Alicia again, and her brain took a few seconds laps to fully comprehend what was happening.

The brunette didn't look so pretty anymore. Her rich brown hair was replaced with flame, her skin turned chalk-white and her once-green-eye were the color of blood. However, what really caught the Princess's eyes were her legs. One was bronze, and the other resembled a donkey leg. Zelda would have find that funny of wasn't for the thing's razor-sharp talons, or the murderous glint in its eyes.

Alicia, whatever she was, didn't spare the blonde much attention. She instead turned and swiped her brand new claws at Percy, who stumbled back in surprise and, by pure luck, avoided getting shredded. The monster advanced and brought its talons down at the demigod away. But this time, Percy was prepared. The swordsman rolled away and kicked up, his foot landing right in his offender's abdomen.

The monster hissed, but regained its senses quickly and swiped at Percy again, this time with fury in its red eyes. Without thinking, Zelda notched her bow and shot, barely stopping to aim in the panic of helping her friend. Miraculously, the arrow found its mark, right through the thing's chest.

Alicia screeched and stumbled forward, almost falling directly on Percy, who scrambled on his feet and dashed to Zelda and Link's side. The monster turned and snared at them, hands clawing at its wound, which was leaking black and yellow dust.

"This isn't over, Perseus." It hissed and yanked the arrow out of its flesh, "When our Lords are done with you and your pathetic friends, you'll all be wishing you were never born!"

Zelda felt her head swimming with questions, but Percy beat her to the punch.

"What do you mean? What Lords?" He asked, taking a step forward in anger, which was not a wise move since he didn't even get his sword out.

The monster barked out a hideous laugh, its entire body shaking, making more dust spilled from its wound.

"Trust me," it cackled, "You won't live long enough to find out."

And with that, it lashed out once again, fang bared and eyes murderous, but it didn't go far. With a whoosh, Zelda's second arrow pierced the monster's throat, and the thing went down screaming, its body dissolving into black and yellow dust.

"I'll be back," it hissed through its dying breath, "As long as the Malice still courses through me, I swear you and your little friends will burn in Tartarus."

A stunned silence settled upon the trio as them watched the monster crumbled down and disappeared. Zelda felt a curtain of numbness passed through her as she looked down at her bow. She didn't remember notching any arrow or aiming it, and she didn't mean to kill the monster. Sure, it tried to kill Percy, but… the Princess could recall vividly those huge emerald eyes…

' _Stop it_ ,' She told herself angrily, _'You did what you had to do. No point crying about spoiled milk.'_

Instead, she turned to the demigod, who had calmed down to a degree, and asked, "What, in the name of Hylia, was that?" Zelda didn't mean for it to come out so harsh, but Percy didn't seem to care.

"That was an empousa." He said, his eyes still drilling holes to the pile of dust, "A monster from my world."

"From your world?" Zelda echoed, bewildered, "Then how is it here?"

But even as she said that, the Princess had already had a theory. In fact, it was this theory that had pushed her to decide to go on this trip, after all, but she didn't know how much she needed to hear it from another person until now.

Percy did it for her. He said, "Same way I did, probably." He allowed himself a disbelieving snort, "Through an exploding seashell."

The Princess didn't find the situation too funny, and neither did Link, who tiredly suggested they head back and continued the discussion somewhere safer. The other two couldn't agree more.

The walk back to their horses was uneventful. In the end, the trio agreed to settle down right there and then, too tired to find another spot. Once again, Percy volunteered to go and fill their canteens, while Zelda helped Link set up their lunch. In no time, they had a boiling pot of delicious meat coming up.

"So…" Zelda blinked and looked at Link. It was quite strange for the blond to break the silence first, so when he speaks, she listens.

"So?" The Princess urged.

Link curled his lips a little and sighed, "He obviously knows we know more than we're letting on. Are you gonna tell him?"

The blonde frowned, "What do you think?"

"I quite like the guy, actually." Link shrugged, poking the fire carefully. He didn't answer her question directly, but Zelda knew what he was implying.

"I don't know, Link…" The Princess rubbed her palms together and drew them over her hair, "I wanted to tell him, but… with everything that's going on… with _Ganon_ on the rise…"

Zelda paused and drew a frustrated breath, "I know he's a good person, and that honestly makes the whole thing worst! It feels like we're using him, you know?" She bit her lips, "But then again, I do feel like we own him the truth. I'm just… not sure how he would react to it."

A heavy pause, "Maybe I'm overthinking it. Maybe I should just tell him. After all, he did trust us with his heritage, did he not? Percy's a nice guy. He would understand, wouldn't he?"

Zelda's brooding was cut short when the demigod in question stumbled back, grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry it took so long," He said, tossing the filled canteens to Link, "The creek was farther away than I thought."

The Knight caught the canteens and set them down, shrugging, "Well, you're just on time. Food's ready." He didn't say anything about the previous conversation between him and Zelda, and the Princess felt immense gratitude for that.

As always, the trio ate in silence. But the thoughts running around Zelda's head was enough to fill the air with noises. Occasionally, she would sneak glances at Percy, who was oblivious to them and instead stared absentmindedly at his food, his fingers tapping randomly against his bowl.

Link was also not paying his lunch as much attention as he normally would. The Knight was altering his gaze between Percy and Zelda, waiting for one of them to make a move. He knew sooner or later the cat would be out of the bag.

At the end, Percy was the one who broke the silence.

"So," he hummed, "any idea what was the deal with the emposa? It said something about its 'Lords', didn't it?"

"I…" Zelda bit her lips, "I think we do know something about that, actually."

The Princess could literally see Percy's attention perked up dramatically at that. His sea green eyes narrowed slightly at her, but he didn't push. She didn't need him to; the demigod had told his story, now it was her turn.

So Zelda told him about Ganon, about the Champions and the Divine Beasts. She told him about how the cycle had been repeating for thousands of years, and how it was happening now. She told him her and Link's roles in the whole picture. Finally, she told him about the latest energy disturbances that were erupting across Hyrule.

"I thought those events have to relate to each other somehow." The Princess explained, "And then you showed up, falling from the sky, claiming you were a demigod from another world."

"I didn't know what to think," she drew her fingers through her hair as she continued, "when that letter arrived, I just thought that would be a good opportunity to find out what was going on, so I decided to come along."

Zelda snuck a glance at Percy, who remained silence throughout the entire conversation. The demigod seemed confused with his eyebrows furrowed and his lips slightly apart.

The silence was deafening, and so the Princess went on, pouring her thoughts out to fill in the space. "I only went along because I thought it might help me with my own problems. I didn't think how important the whole thing would be to you. And I felt horrible about that. I just feel like I'm… using you somehow, and I"-

-"Woah! Hold up!" Percy exclaimed, looking at Zelda as if she had just grown a second head. "Who said anything about you using me?!"

"No one!" Zelda exclaimed, flushing slightly, "I just… I don't know… it just _feels_ like it." The last bit of her sentence flattered slightly as the demigod's increasing disbelieving look.

Percy wasn't cruel enough to laugh at her, instead, the demigod scooted a little closer to the group and sighed.

"Look, I get it." He said, "You're a Princess, you're kingdom is in danger, and you are trying everything you can to save it. Then some random kid from another world fell out of the sky, adding more into your pile of problem. I would have done the exact same thing if I were in your shoes. So, don't make such a big deal out of it, okay?"

Zelda lowered her head, not knowing what else to say. She did felt kind of silly now that her thoughts were out in the open. Maybe Link was right. Maybe she really was overthinking it. The Princess awkwardly tried to busy herself by taking a bite off her meal, which, sadly, was no longer warm.

Percy must have sensed her reluctance to continue with the topic, as the demigod cleared his throat and not-so-subtly changed the subject.

"Well, at least that explained what 'Lords' the emposa was talking about." At Link and Zelda's quizzed look, he explained, "When I… left, there were some evil Roman Emperors who were trying to make themselves gods. They tried to destroy Camp Half-blood, which is one of the few safe places for demigods, but me and my friends stopped them. As far as I know, they were still out there somewhere, and the chance of them being behind all this is pretty high, don't you think?"

"Hmm…" Zelda pondered, slipping back into her natural role as the thinker, "It certainly can't be a coincidence, with you and the monsters from your world appearing on our land right when Ganon is rising. The possibility that he somehow developed a mean of worlds traveling isn't too farfetched either."

"Uh huh." Percy nodded, "So let's just say that somehow our merry band of over Lords wanna-be somehow managed to gang together and tossed me here. How are we gonna deal with that?"

"I'm not sure. But, we'll have to fight them sooner or later." The Princess sighed, fiddling nervously with her hands, "Either way, we still have a lead right now, so I think we figure this one out first before make our next move."

Percy shrugged, "Sounds good to me, we'll burn that bridge when we get there, right?"

"…Why would we burn the bridge?"

"It's… it's just an expression."

"I see…"

It was a huge relief getting all of that off her shoulders, and Zelda couldn't help but giggled a bit. Percy chuckled slightly along with her, and Link threw her an 'I told you so' look completed with that annoying little smirk of his.

She couldn't believe how ridiculous she had been, working every little things up so much. Maybe Link was right; she needed to learn how to relax.

' _After all of this,'_ She thought, _'I would definitely take a few days off.'_


	10. Chapter 10: A magical surprise

**Chapter 10: A magical surprise.**

The trio was getting steadily close to the desert. Percy, while he was no geography wizard, had noticed the changes around him as they crept closer to their destination. The plants were getting thinner and more scattered as they pressed on, the ground was slowly turning from green into a shade of dry yellow, and the atmosphere was getting noticeably different, too: instead of the cool breezes he often received in Hyrule's field, the wind now carried a dry and bitter bite.

All things considered, the journey was going quite smoothly; too smoothly in fact. They hadn't encountered any monsters since the fiasco with the emposa, and the only problem they had at the moment was the lack of food, which could be easily solved.

According to the map on the Sheikah Slate, there was a little village called Samitto on top of a small mountain. The trio had decided to leave their horses at a nearby stable and went up there for more supply. Now, they were regretting that decision, since the rain was make the trudge up the slope absolute hell.

Percy didn't know how annoying rain could be, until he experienced Hyrule's rain. It had been pouring cats and dogs for over five hours now, and even though he couldn't get wet, the stormy atmosphere and the constant thundering and lightning were starting to get on his nerves.

His two Hylian companions didn't seem to be faring any better even though none complained out loud. Zelda was spotting a look of contempt on her face as she waddled through the soaked ground, constantly grimacing whenever her boot sank through a particularly muddy spot.

Link had once again slipped on his poker face, but Percy could still catch little instants when the Knight would look at the sky and muttered something under his breath. The demigod didn't comment on any of that.

Finally, they reached the village. Predictably, no one was outside in such weather, and the emptiness gave the place a certain depressing vibe to it. That didn't stop the trio from venturing deeper in. By the time they found the inn, they were so tired they just dumped their belongings on the floor and slumped down next to them, breathing heavily. The owner of the inn, a middle age lady with sleek black hair, took notice of them and, thankfully, came over with a pile of fresh towels.

"Thank you so much." Zelda said breathlessly and started drying her hair.

"Oh, it's no problem, you're soaking wet!" The owner dismissed. She ran her eyes over the three of them and smiled, "I reckon that you would like to rent a room, perhaps two?"

"Yes, of course, that would be lovely." The blonde nodded. She quickly dug out several Rupees and handed it to the woman, who took them and in turn, handed the Princess a pair of keys.

"Welcome to Samitto."

There was no point in trying to do anything while it was still pouring outside, so the trio went to their rooms and took turns with the showers. Of course, Percy had already dried all of them beforehand, but after a few days rolling around in the wilderness, no one turned down the thought of a real, hot shower. As expected, the boys offered to let Zelda go first, and this time, she didn't argue too hard.

To the trio's dismay, it was still raining when the three of them had finished, and it showed no sign of stopping either.

"I thought it wasn't supposed to rain in the dessert?" Percy groaned, feeling his ADHD acting up.

"It wasn't." Zelda mumbled, once again tapping away on her Sheikah Slate, "This is the very first rain in the area for fifty years."

"I don't care if this is the very first rain in the history; I just want it to _stoooppp_!" Percy complained, sounding very much like a whiny teenager.

"It will, eventually." Link retorted with a sigh.

Zelda tucked her Slate away and glanced impatiently at the raindrops beating against the window. "It had better end soon. There is no way we can reach the trading market in this weather, and our supply's low."

"Can't we just buy something in the village?" The demigod asked. "Isn't that why we're here?"

"We're here for the food. Yes." The Princess of Light explained, "But we are running out of arrows and heat-resisted elixir. I doubt we could find either in a simple village like this."

Percy didn't ask more, for he remembered drinking the last bottle of their elixir supply. Turned out the son of the sea god was much more sensitive to the desert's weather that they had initially thought. The silence stretched on until Link declared that he was going to take a nap and told them to wake him up if something happened.

For a moment, Percy considered following his friend's example and went to bed, but he soon dismissed the idea. All those water had already out his sense on high focus, and his ADHD was demanding him to do something other than staying still. So after a moment of mental debate, the demigod decided to go out there and have a look around the village.

The rain had covered the place in a thin veil of white mist, soaking up everything and making the ground muddy. None of that bothered Percy as much as the thundering sky. Following Zelda's advice, he had left every single metal thing he had with him behind to avoid the risk of getting hit by lightning. Still, every time the sky rumbled and flashed, he could felt the hair on his back stood up.

Like Zelda had said, Samitto was a simple village. There were barely more than a dozen houses here, with a few shops and stores. The people here really did depend on the trading market of the dessert. Either way, the demigod quickly grew bored after a lap of the place, having met no one and seen nothing interesting.

At times like this, his thought wandered briefly back home and he found himself wondering if his family was alright. He missed his mom, his dad, and his little sister. He missed Camp and gods know how much he missed Annabeth.

The rain was getting consistently worse. It was turning into a storm, and Percy found himself struggling against the harsh winds. The demigod ultimately admitted that going outside was pointless and started trudging back toward the inn. That's when something caught his eyes.

At first glance, they looked like storm clouds. But they were too dark, and they were moving too fast to be ordinary clouds. Immediately, the demigod knew he was in trouble, and he doubled the effort of running back up.

He got three steps ahead before the first lightning zapped down. Thanks to his demigod reflexes, Percy managed to rolled aside and not get burnt into a crisp. Cussing under his breath, he got back on his feet and uncapped Riptide. The sky thundered more as the Celestial blade came into view, confirming the demigod's hypothesis that he was being attacked by a Greek monster, or several of them.

The storm swirled above his head, flashing angrily, and descended. Percy made out misty horse forms galloping among the black clouds. The son of Poseidon even more as he realized he was surrounded by a herd of storm spirits.

The son of Poseidon had never like dealing these particular monsters. He wished that Jason was here. This would be so much easier with the Blond Superman. Nevertheless, Percy stayed calm and tried to get a grip on the situation.

 _What would Annabeth do?_

"Hey there!" Percy yelled up at the horses in an attempt to negotiate. It was no use, the wind was beating away his voice, and the horses weren't exactly reasonable.

Alright, the hard way it is.

He tried to remember what Annabeth and Jason had said about storms spirits.

How to kill these things again?

Right. Jason electrocuted them.

This was bad news to the demigod. He had no power over electricity whatsoever. Percy's mind raced as he tried to find a way out. Then it hit him.

 _Link had shock arrows._

Percy risked a glance back at the inn. He was quite far away, but surely such a commotion like this would have drawn Zelda's attention, and the Princess would definitely go and fetch Link. If not, then the demigod guessed he was quite, pun completely intended, _toasted_.

Either way, he was not going without a fight. With his mind set, he raised Riptide in challenge, and the first storm spirit charged at him. The son of Poseidon didn't bother trying to hit it, knowing his sword would past right through the thing. He simply stepped aside and let the horse trampled past him.

Under the pouring rain, his sense was boosted to super alertness and he could feel his energy vibrating. His biggest problem right now would be the howling wind. True, he had somewhat control over storms, but in the mist of this, he was afraid his power would not make much difference. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try.

Percy bit his lip as he concentrated, then _finally_ the demigod felt that familiar tug in his stomach and to his relief, the wind around his shifted and the thunder ceased. He could hear the spirits neighed nervously and agitatedly.

One particularly bold one tried to shoot him down with a lightning bolt. The son of Poseidon swung Riptide like a bat and deflected the hit, disintegrating one of the spirits, causing the other to shift even more nervously.

But the bolt sent a joint of pain up the Half-blood arm and he yelled as the current of electricity raced through his body. With his right arm numbed, Percy switched Riptide into his left hand, wincing internally. The monsters seemed to sense his hesitation as they neighed and started to surge toward him. The demigod managed to keep them at bay with an intense bust of wind, but he knew he couldn't keep this up for much longer.

Then, he heard a shout and nearly wept in joy as he saw his saviors came running towards in the form of a disgruntled, bed-dragged Hylian. Link drew his sword, looking very much impressive despite his bird nest of a hair. Zelda was right behind him, bow drawn and face determined.

"Stay away from him!" The Princess commanded, and the monsters steered back, momentary thrown off by the new comers and the sheer power radiated from Zelda's voice.

Using their distraction, Percy dropped the wind and dashed toward his friends.

"Are you okay?" The blonde asked with her eyes still steady on the horses.

"I'll live." The demigod wheezed.

"Good. What are these?" Even when in danger, trust Zelda to be fascinated by the monsters.

"Storm spirits."

"Uh huh. How do we deal with them?" Chimed in Link, who was as straight forward as always.

The Hal-blood looked around frantically, and on impulse, he said the first thing that came to his mind: "I, uh… We need electricity. Shock-arrows might work."

Zelda's frown deepened. "It's raining, Percy. We'll get electrocuted."

"Then… we don't let them get too close. Besides, I can control the rain well enough." ' _I think._ ' Percy urged, hoping his voice sounded more confident than he felt.

"…Alright. But we don't have much more of those arrows."

"Just… hold them off until I think of something else!"

The two Hylians didn't have time to question the plan, since the horses had grown restless and decided to stop beating around the bushes and attacked. The whole herd, eight horses in total, galloped straight at the trio with the full intention of trampling, or electrocuting, them to death.

They didn't get very far. Zelda's bow sung a high note as it sent a glittering arrow soaring through the screaming air, and the nearest storm spirit went down in a yellow bust. Its fellow horses thundered angrily and steered aside from the blast, but they quickly rallied and continues their attacked.

Another arrow was released and another monster disintegrated, but the others kept coming. Soon enough, the trio was forced to retreat. They backed away until they were nearly on the front porch of the inn, and Percy's brain was scrambling to think off a new strategy, and the screaming, fleeing people around him was quite a distraction.

Percy swallowed hard as Link released another arrow. He knew he was fighting a losing battle, and part of him thought that it would be quite embarrassing to survive this far only to be brought down by a bunch of stupid lightning-breathing horses.

He thought about the last time he had faced these monsters. He remembered fighting back to back with Annabeth, Hazel, and Frank with Leo, Piper, and Jason soaring above the sky. He remembered how the sky lit up with fire that day, and the dread in him when he realized that Leo was nowhere to be found. Of course, the idiot had come back after ward with that same stupid smile and an ex-Titan for a girlfriend, but Percy remembered his grief well enough. He remembered how much it hurts to lose a friend.

Link and Zelda, Percy had known the two for barely a week, but they had fought together, they had shared together, and he considered them his friends. The demigod could not, would not, bare to loose another friend.

That thought surprisingly motivated him more than it should, and the demigod let out a battle yell as the wind picked up around him, sending the horses into a mad scramble.

"We have to go, now!" Zelda shouted. Link and Percy didn't need to be told twice. There was no time to retrieve their belongings, no time to even stop and think how humiliating it was, running away. The two Hylians and one demigod turned and ran without a second thought.

Somehow, they made it back to the down the mountain and toward the stable without tripping and falling flat on their faces. The stable owner, mercifully, caught on the situation fairly quickly and had alerted everyone inside. By the time the three of them made it to the stable, everyone had already evacuated, and the trio's their horses were ready and waiting for them. The company mounted in record time and galloped away even faster.

And then something truly miraculous happened.

One of the riders slowed down until they were neck to neck with the trio. The rider was a young man with brown eyes and light green eyes that, for some reason, looked very familiar to Percy.

The mysterious rider held the reign in on hand and raised the other, palm glowing green with runes. He pulled his horse to an abrupt halt and turned to face the storm. On impulse, the demigod also stopped, veered around and yelled:

"Dude! What in Hades are you doing?"

He was spectacularly ignored.

The rider started to chant in what Percy recognized as Ancient Greek. Shocked, the son of Poseidon stood there, frozen as the brunette's voice resonated above the thundering storm and the light in his palm grew brighter.

Then, with a shout, the searing light exploded, and the shock wave swept the thunder storm, almost knocking Percy off his horse in the process. When the light faded, the demigod's ears were ringing and his head felt like it was just tossed around like a dice.

He blinked the remaining stars out of his vision just as his two companions stopped at his side. Their senses slowly returned to them and they found the air around them thickened with tension. Out of the corner of his eyes, Percy saw his friends' hands inched toward their weapons, and he was only dimly aware that his were doing the same.

There was something very familiar about the savior, though the demigod couldn't quite pinpoint it. He watched, like a hawk, as the rider slowly turned to face them. The guy was young, probably around Percy's age, and had a tall, almost lanky, built. His face was mostly hidden by his loose grey hood but Percy could still make out slightly tanned skin and freckles. A lot of freckles.

Then he pulled his hood back and suddenly, the demigod understood why the rider seemed so familiar to him. The son of Poseidon had seen that same dark brown hair, that same green eyes and freckled face anytime he looked at Lou Ellen and her siblings, anytime he looked at a child of Hecate.

"Perseus Jackson," The rider said, his voice laced with grudging tolerance, "Alabaster Torrington. I've been waiting for you."


	11. Chapter 11: The plan in motion

**Chapter 11: The plan in motion**

Alabaster Torrington.

That is a name that casts a long and dark shadow. Like Luke and Selena, the name Alabaster carried more weight on it than it should have.

Nobody at home really speak of this particular son of Hecate anymore, at least not outright. People still whisper about him, and after the Titan War, those whispers only turned bitterer and harsher. However, as the Giant War approached, the Hecate kids started operating search parties in (not so) secret, sending their brothers and sisters out in the field in hope of finding their lost sibling. Chiron did nothing to stop them; in fact, there were rumors that the old centaur himself had ordered the search.

Needless to say, that whole shenanigan was met with a lot of, ah hem, _diverse_ opinions.

A few Athena kids had (begrudgingly) admitted that Alabaster was an excellent General, having led the Hecate faction against the demigods in the battle of Manhattan and caused no small amount of grief on his opponents. These few children of Wisdom had argued that _if_ they somehow managed to find the son of Hecate and convinced him to be on their side in the upcoming war, it would give them a huge advantage over the enemy.

The majority of the demigods, however, had thought the effort as fruitless and a waste of man-power and they should instead be focusing on the impending war.

(An especially reckless Ares kid had brought the issue up with one of the Hecate kid with no tact or filter for his words, and what happened afterward had served as hard evidence as to why pissing off a magical half-blood was a horrible idea.)

Regardless, nobody had ever come back successfully, and now, Percy was beginning to suspect why.

It took him several more tries to get his mouth to work and coughed the overwhelming smell of ozone out of his throat. Behind him, he could hear Link and Zelda shuffling their horses closer to his, forming a tight and protective line.

The son of Hecate pinched his brows at the two Hylians like he had only just noticed them. With a scowl, he said: "I told you to come alone."

"…You're the one who sent the letter." Percy said, and them cringed a little at how dumb that sounded.

"Obviously." Alabaster replied with an eye roll that he made no effort to conceal. Then, he suddenly turned serious, "We're wasting time. That spell only spooked them away for a while. They'll be back, and we need to be far away when that happens."

"Wait, hold on!" Zelda interrupted and urged her horse a little forward until she was between Percy and Alabaster. In the corner of his eyes, the son of the sea god saw Link made an aborted motion toward his sword.

"You can't seriously expect us to leave with you just like that, can you. We don't know who you are, and all you've given us is a frightening magical light show and a name. Tell me what is going on, and we might consider your... offer." The Princess stated without leaving any room for argument; and for a moment, Percy was hit again with how much she resembled Annabeth, even Athena, with that much authority in her voice.

Alabaster's frown deepened, and he replied rather patronizingly: "With all due respect, _Princess_ , we don't have much time: the monsters will be back and we need to get to safety. I have a safe place not very far from here, and I will tell you everything you need to know once we're there, you know, away from the monsters that are trying to kill us."

Percy snuck a glance at Zelda, who had an indignant look on her face, which was rather tame, considering that the son of Poseidon now wanted to introduce the other half-blood's magical face to his fist.

The Princess recovered quickly and remarked: "If you really want us to come with you, you're going to need to be a little bit more persuasive, because so far, all you did was convincing me that you are, according to Percy, a 'douche'."

That earned a snort from said demigod, which turned into a choke of laughter as he caught the look on Alabaster's face. Behind them, Link didn't even bother to conceal his chuckle.

 _The Princess has some serious sass. Who could have known?_

"We don't have time for this!" The son of Hecate hissed out in frustration, and Percy decided to take pity on the guy.

"He has a point though," He said and quickly continued as Zelda threw him an incredulous look, "Those monsters might be back and we need to be away. Right now, that guy is our best bet..."

""That guy" _is_ right here, and he can hear you, you know."

"… And if he turns out to be lying, we'll handle him, too."

Zelda frowned and turned to look at Link, then both Hylians shifted their gazes toward Alabaster.

"Alright," The Princess decided. "We can handle him."

Percy beamed exaggeratedly, "Great! You hear that Al? Lead the way!"

The other demigod opened his mouth and closed it again. Looking like he was seriously reconsidering his life choice, Alabaster finally gave a stiff nod, turned his horse around, and spurred it into a gallop, all the while not even turning around to see if the others were following.

-/O/-

After they had gone a considerable amount of time, Percy, not being able to keep quiet anymore, turned to the brunet and remarked carefully: "You've been for a very long time, Al, your siblings are worried."

Alabaster's lips turned into a straight line, but he didn't say anything.

Percy pressed: "What happened to you? Were you here all this time?"

A pause, then: "No, I have only been here for four months." Another drawn out silence, "When I was… taken, I saw the signs of a war brewing in the horizon. What happened?"

The son of Poseidon heaved a sigh: "The Giant War happened. We won though, but… Apollo was banished out of Olympus, he's now a mortal called "Lester", and a lot of crazy stuff has been popping up ever since. I think… I think some big is coming, _again_."

The other demigod bit his lip, and offered no further comment. Despite the many questions still bubbling in his head, Percy decided to wait.

The journey continued to drag on in heavy silence as the four travelers continued further South West. At one point, when the distant sky behind them rumbled with thunder, Alabaster looked back with distaste and spurred his horse faster. Soon enough, the travelers found themselves facing the vast, scorching orange plain of the Gerudo desert.

"We're almost there." The son of Hecate announced and took a turn to the left.

"Wait," Link objected for the first time during their trek, "The desert's the other way."

"I know," Their guide said curtly, still not looking back, "We're making a pit stop."

He started leading them around the desert and into what could be described as a mini savanna filled with dirt orange rocks of all sizes. After navigating through the field for more than fifteen minutes with Alabaster grumbling unhappily to himself and making everyone felt lost, they finally stopped in front of an orange boulder. Aside from its massive size, which is relatively like a small house, the rock didn't have anything special going for it.

"You know," Percy said flippantly, "When you said "pit stop", I was thinking of something along the line of a Gas-N-Sip, not… whatever this is."

Alabaster didn't dignify that with a response; instead, he dismounted and approached the rock. Lifting his hand, he mumbled a spell, which caused white lines to race up the smoother surface of the boulder, intersect, and create a glowing outline of a cursive doorway.

Then, without even batting an eye, Alabaster stepped through the gateway, phrasing right through what was solid rock.

Zelda stiffed an excited gasp. Link's eyebrows rose. Percy didn't even bother to act surprised.

"Come on." He gestured and followed the other demigod.

Inside, Percy was unabashedly disappointed that it was not bigger than the outside, meaning that it was very cramped, especially with four healthy teenagers stuffed inside. The secret hideout resembled a storage room more than anything, with the only furniture being a small wooden table, and the rest of the place was filled to the brim with weapons, clothing, and books. This left the current living inhabitants of this place very little place to move.

The Hylians didn't seem very put off by the lack of space –the contend of the room had had their interests– Zelda was busying herself with the multitude of books, and Link, while still remaining vigilant, was casting the many weapons curious glances.

Alabaster seemed to notice this and grunted: "Don't touch anything." The brunet then processed to pull out a wooden box from underneath the table and opened it.

"This," he said, holding up a small silver coin wrapped in a piece of cloth, "is what warped me here, to Hyrule."

The trio perked up, immediately very keen on the object.

"Warped, as in humming, exploding in golden light warped?" Percy asked, wincing silently with the memory.

"Well, mine was more of a shriek than a hum, but I'm pretty sure it's the same thing."

"So you were brought her the same way Percy was." The princess knitted her brows together. "But you were here longer. That crosses out several theories of mine."

Frowning, the son of magic put the coin away and turned upon the other half-blood: "After the Titan War, I went into hiding. During that time, I saw some rather disturbing signs, which I assumed correctly foreshadowed the coming of the Giant War. I decided to investigate further and stumbled upon golden information from the enemy: information of a new world, and a method of crossing over that world."

"Wait, you're telling me the _Giants_ were responsible for this?" Percy exclaimed, "If that is the case, shouldn't this whole thing stop once they are defeated?"

"Well, no, I don't think the Giants caused this." He scowled, "I found something that mentioned a "Triumvirate"."

Percy's eyes widened: "Those are the guys that are after Apollo. Supposedly, they also supplied the bad guys with weapons and all sorts of stuff in both wars. They're quite influential, but to such an extent that could pull _world-travelling_ off?" He let out a borderline hysteric laugh. This is bad. They've already wrecked so much havoc back home, who knows what could happen if they have this crap at their disposal.

"One thing at a time Percy," Zelda soothed, "You have to worry about getting back first." She turned to Alabaster, silently asking him to continue with his narrative.

"As I was saying, I came across some vital information regarding their plans for the wars and gods know what else, and as you can expect, that painted a huge target on my back. They set out a trap with the coin, which I fell for, and the rest is history."

He ended with a little jazz and a mockingly amused tone. Percy wondered if sass is a part of the demigod's ingrained DNA.

"I'm not sure why they even bothered shipping me here instead of just killing me, but I guess that they needed a lab rat or something. My landing in Hyrule was very rough. I remembered vomiting and passing out upon arrival. When I came to, I was with this weird cult thing that called themselves the Yiga Clan."

Zelda visibly restrained herself from asking questions as the son of Hecate's continued: "From what I could gather, they initially were ordered to kill me, but they wanted to get some information out of me first. I stalled for time and gathered enough energy to escape. I've been all around ever since, trying to figure out what exactly is going on, but so far, I haven't gotten anything very useful. "

A heavy silence hung upon them as Alabaster finished his anecdote as everyone soaked it in. Percy rubbed his hand down his face and heaved himself onto the table, feeling the fatigue settling in on him.

Surprisingly, it was Link who broke the silence first.

In a forced monotone, the same one he had used on Percy in the training ground all those days ago, he questioned: "The day Percy came here, we were ambushed by the Yiga Clan. They came expecting him. Do you have any idea how?"

The son of magic replied with a heavy heart: "The same way they anticipated me, probably. I'm not sure how exactly. Their magic was unfamiliar to me, and I didn't stick around to learn about it."

"The Yiga has always been able to track certain people to an extent," Zelda remarked, "I wouldn't be surprised if they had somehow managed to monitor the, uh, appearances." Her scowl turned deeper as she explained to Alabaster, "Before you showed up, Hyrule had been experiencing strange bursts of energy. After certain bursts, a foreign monster would be reported in the vicinity. I, Link, and Percy are quite sure that they are related to this whole mess, and now that we have more information, I think I may have a full explanation."

Alabaster leaned in closer as the blonde cleared her throat: "I, Link, and Percy have developed this theory of Calamity Ganon from my world cooperating with someone from yours, whom we now know as the "Triumvirate", to send all the monsters and you two here. Over time, we see that the evidence only work to cement this. The beasts that were sent here no longer just bleed golden dust like they were supposed to, they now also bleed a black substance we call "Malice"."

The son of Poseidon took over: "We talked about why the Triumvirate and Ganon would do this. So far, the most reasonable thing is that they are helping each other with their goals." He waved his hands in an arch, "Think about it: the monsters that were sent here can only add more trouble to the people here, and from what we've been seeing, the Malice stuff is definitely making them stronger. As for you and I, well, I think that the Triumvirate might have sent us here to get us out of their way. It makes sense; they even had the Yiga intercept you, and I was tossed out of the sky. It was sheer luck that both of us had survived."

"The only thing we haven't quite figured out yet is how they are doing this." Zelda continued, "From what Percy has been telling us, there hadn't been any Hyrule monsters appearing back in his world, which led us to the assumption that Ganon and the Triumvirate hadn't figured out how to do that, at least not yet. This is what we will need to find out in order to send you two back home."

At this, Alabaster suddenly broke into a smile.

"Well, looks like luck's on your side." The freckled teen grinned. The bastard even paused for dramatic effect.

"Okay," Percy grumbled, "I'll bite: What?"

The other demigod's grin got wider: "I have a lead on how to get us back."

A beat of silence, then:

"What? How?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"Why, in the name of Hylia, didn't you just lead with that?"

The brunet held up his hands defensively, "You guys were so focused on other things, I didn't want to interrupt."

"Alright, elaborate, now." Zelda demanded.

"During my stay at Hyrule, I figured out a way to monitor the "energy bursts", that's how I know when you arrived, by the way." He stuck his chin out at Percy, "There was this one particular burst that caught my interest. Long story short, I went to investigate it. There was an entire reception of Yiga members at the site, which was definitely suspicious. I snooped around a bit and found out that the monster which was brought there had carried some important documents with it. I stuck around for a bit longer, and managed to get out with a few papers of that document."

"Holy crab." Percy choked, "You must be some kind of saint."

The freckled teen seemed to preen under the praise, though he was quick to hide it, "Well, I could only get a couple of papers, and it took me awhile to piece together the meaning of the documents, but I eventually get that the papers could lead to our escape."

"Do you still have the papers with you?" The princess inquired with a renewed fire dancing in her green eyes.

At this, Alabaster's shoulders dropped, "No, I had to burn them when the Yiga picked up my trail. I couldn't risk them falling into the enemy's hands. Either way, I remember the paper saying that the Yiga is building some sort of machine by the Leviathan Bones which could potentially lead to our escape. When I received signals indicating your arrival," he jutted his chin to Percy. "I sent a letter to you."

Link's eyebrows pitched together further as a troubled look cross his face. He quizzed: "You initially gave us a week, yet here you are, urging us ahead of plan. What has changed?"

At this, the son of magic paled dramatically. "Damn ADHD." He cursed, shot to his feet, and started herding the trio out the door. "We need to move now."

Alarmed at the sudden display of urgency, Zelda, Percy, and Link let themselves be pushed outside where their horses were waiting. A second later, the brunet hopped out after them with his arms full of supplies and his mouth full of curses.

"Wow." Percy winced at a particularly nasty one. "Where's the fire?"

"The reason why I intercepted your journey is because the Yiga have somehow caught a wisp of my intention and have pushed construction up ahead of schedule." His words came out breathlessly and barely audible. "I should have told you the moment we met, but god damned I just had to get distracted." He hissed out a few more cusses, this time in Ancient Greek.

"Hold on, slow down." Zelda ordered, "How much time do we have?"

The son of Hecate wailed: "They are going to finish the construction today!" Green eyes blazing, he whirled on Percy, "The machine is a one-shot cannon. If we miss the shot tonight, we'd better kiss our hope of going home bye-bye."

For a second, the son of Poseidon felt his blood drained out of his face. He deftly noted the various degrees of worried expressions turned his way. The thought of not going home was unbearable to the half-blood. For the majority of his journey in Hyrule, Percy had tried his best to bury those unpleasant thoughts behind his head in a desperate attempt to stay positive. Now, like water through a broken dam, those repressed thoughts came rushing out, and he was drowning beneath them.

There were panicked voices echoing through the haze in his head. He felt himself pitching forward into the cold embrace of the dark waves. The pressure behind his face increased as he dove deeper and deeper still. However, the impact never came. He vaguely felt something caught him and steered him somewhere. With no strength nor will to fight, he let himself be led away.

"Percy?" A voice broke through the waves.

"Percy. Wake up." It lost all its previous hesitation. Then, a sharp sting spread across his cheek.

The demigod's vision snapped back in sharp focus, and his body immediately recoiled, falling backward in shock.

Once again, a pair of arms shot out and grabbed him with steady yet gentle grasp, holding him still. The demigod's eyes traced the pair of hands gripping tightly on his shoulders to a familiar blue eyed blond.

"Oh Styx." He muttered and palmed his forehead, "What the Hades happened?"

Link's frown deepened: "You had a panic attack… I think."

"You think." Percy couldn't help but echoed incredulously, and for that, he only got a shrug in response.

Shaking his head in disbelief, the half-blood casted his gaze away from the knight's troubled face and onto Zelda and Alabaster, who were huddled together a good distance away and busy with their packing. The princes stopped long enough to look worrily at the black-haired teen, and her face visibly brightened when she saw that he was no longer fainting.

"Oh, thank the goddesses." She reveled breathlessly as she ran over to them. "You gave us quite a scare." For a split second, she seemed to debate to herself whether or not she should hug him, but in the end, she shouldered on: "You were unresponsive for a good two minutes. We thought you were going to faint. Link brought you over here so you can breathe easier." Taking in a deep breath, she calmed her racing heart down, "How are you feeling, Percy?"

"I'm, uh, fine… I guess"

"You don't sound sure."

"I-"

"Are you three finish? We have a deadline, you know!"

The trio jumped slightly at the sudden voice of Alabaster, who was still waiting by the horses with his arms crossed and a very impatient expression on his face.

With the weight of the situation once again pressed down on him, Percy shrugged off Link's hands and climbed onto his feet. Hoping that he sounded braver than he felt, Percy called out: "Yeah. Yeah, We're good." He took a deep breath and offered his friends a smile with his confidence returning, "Let's get this show on the road."


End file.
